Revelations
by Reigning Devil
Summary: Sick of being blamed for Jean's death Rogue left the mansion. On their mission to find her the X-Men find that even she has secrets. Blended with X-Men Evo, RogueLance. COMPLETE
1. Default Chapter

I own nothing, although I wish I did.

The rain was falling down steadily, drops running down the windowpane, only separated by a piece of glass from the pale face of the girl seated on the windowpane. Her hair was pulled into a half-ponytail, a deep brown with two white stripes left free at the front. Her eyes were unfocused, staring out at the rain as though she was seeing a world beyond it. She was hidden behind thick velvet curtains in the library of Xavier's School for the Gifted, attempting to escape the noise and bustle of the rest of the school. She was shaken from her reverie when the door opened and people came wandering in. She knew they couldn't see her and she was wondering if she should stay where she was and ignore them or get up and go somewhere else, then her attention was drawn by what they were saying.

"Can you believe Rogue, I mean, how can she act like she's sad over Dr Grey's death when it was her fault!" Kitty, how could her best friend say that when she'd comforted Rogue after she'd been crying about the people who were saying just those things?

"It wasn't her fault Kitty, if she hadn't flown that plane no one would have got out of there alive." That was Bobby, her supposed boyfriend, pity he couldn't sound a bit more convinced about what he was saying.

"Come off it Bobby, if it was that serious then why didn't you fly the plane, you've been here longer. She's just the poisoned skin freak under the Wolverine's protection. Me and Kitty think that's the only reason the Professor lets her stay here, he needs Wolverine for the X-Men, but I can't believe he lets her stay in our room, she could hurt us."

"Yeah."

Rogue tuned them out after that, her thoughts turning inward. Was it true, was it really her fault that Jean was dead. Maybe it was, maybe Logan not talking to her before he left was because he didn't want to talk to Jeans murderer, not because he was grieving, like she thought.

It had been a month since Alkali Lake, and Rogue had retreated further into herself with each day as she saw the looks and heard the accusations being whispered behind her back. It was getting beyond what she could bear, she'd been thinking about leaving; either going on the run again or finding her brothers, but this had decided it. It had been slightly bearable when she had her best friends and her boyfriend on her side, but it would appear that they believed it was her thought as well.

After about an hour where the three outside the curtains did their homework and talked about a myriad of subjects, and Rogue was planning what she was going to take, where she was going to go and where she was going to find her brothers, the gong ran for dinner. After they left she waited for a few minutes to ensure that they would be out of the corridor and wouldn't be able to see her she left as well. Sprinting to her rooms she pulled out the canvas bag that carried all her things when she was moving around and packed it swiftly. A few pairs of strong jeans, underwear, tops, she pulled her leather duster out from the bag before she started packing. She took off all the jewellery except for plain silver studs, three pairs, a moon and two stars in each ear, and a plain silver hoop at the top of her right ear. She put in a silver belly bar shaped as a crescent moon with silver stars hanging off. No one knew about her piercings, she'd made sure to keep them under glamour at all times. She changed into a pair of black jeans and a long-sleeved hunter green knit shirt and then her duster. Her hair was shaken loose and then she was ready to go. Everyone should be at dinner but she didn't want to take any chances so she left though her window. She moved through the grounds without a single sound or movement to betray her passing. When she reached the East Wall, separating the grounds from the public park next door she swung her bag over her shoulder and started to climb, the gloves she was wearing had been a special gift from her brothers for her fifteenth birthday, they gave her excellent traction on surfaces and with a flick of her wrist her palms were bare so it was easy to get skin-to-skin contact.

Jumping down from the wall she turned to stare at it and the school beyond, wondering if she was doing the right thing. It was hard to leave it behind, acting innocent, naïve, and good was hard, but it was hard to give up a place like that for a life like her old one. But after a few seconds she resumed her walk, she cared about the people in there, even if they hated her for causing Jean's death, so it was better for her to be gone, besides, she was going stir-crazy cooped up in one place for that long.

Five hours after she'd left the school Rogue was on her way down to Mississippi, it had been a long time since she'd seen Irene, and if anyone knew where her brothers where Irene would.

Meanwhile at the school. It had been nearly a day before anyone noticed Rogue was missing, that in itself showed the extent of her exile from the school community. Eventually Ororo noticed that she wasn't in lessons and asked her roommates if they had seen her. Jubilee and Kitty said they hadn't seen her since yesterday. If Storm noticed they had strange looks on their faces when they said that she didn't say anything.

Storm then went up to Rogues room to see if she was there and if there was any idea there as to where she could have disappeared to. Walking into the empty room she noticed a feeling of emptiness coming from Rogues side of the room. Looking at her bed she saw a piece of paper, picking it up she scanned the words quickly before running out of the room to the Professor. Leaving the door to slam, sending echoes around the empty room.

_Dear Professor, I can't stay here, I'm only causing people pain. They're all right, it's my fault that Jean is dead; if I hadn't flown that plane she would still be alive. Everyone here is blaming me and they're right, even Logan wouldn't talk to me before he left. And my best friends and boyfriend think it as well. So they've got to be right. I don't belong here anyway, I'm not who you think I am. Au revoir professor._

Professor laid the letter on his desk in a state of shock at its contents, how could she think she was to blame for that tragic accident. Glancing up a Ororo who's worry was plainly written over her face he gathered himself together and sent out a message for his X-Men to come to his office, they had to find her.

Five minutes later Ororo, Scott and Kurt were standing before the Professor, having just heard rogues letter. "How could anyone do that, it wasn't her fault, it was no ones fault." Scott burst out, he was livid, how could anyone blame the girl who saved their lives fir Jeans death, it was a horrible tragic accident. "I don't know Scott but I do know we have to find her. And we have to let Logan know, he specifically asked to be kept aware of her situation at the school, before he left he was worried about how quiet she was. I want Ororo I want you to go through her room, see if anything she left behind could give us a clue to where she went." Nodding Storm left the room, "Scott, I want you to get the school together, see if anyone knows anything, and find out who's been spreading these rumours. Kurt, I want you to come down to Cerebro with me."

Somewhere in the wilds of Canada 

Driving down a lonely road on his bike, well, technically it was Cykes's; Wolverine nearly drove off the road when a voice spoke in his head.

"_Hello Logan."_

"_Chuck?" _ He pulled his bike over to the edge of the road and got off before he 'spoke' again.

"_Yes Logan, and how many times do I have to ask you not to call me that." _Logan looked affronted but before he could defend himself Charles 'spoke'. _"This isn't the time for that Logan, rogue is missing."_ He sank back in his chair and waited for the inevitable outburst.

"_WHAT!!! How can she be missing Chuck you were supposed to be looking after her."_

"_I know Logan. but she wasn't taken, she ran. It would seem that the students have been blaming her for Jeans death, she thought it would be better for everyone if she left."_

"_Send Scooter up here with the jet Prof, it'll take me a few weeks to get back by bike."_

"_I'll send him immediately. Logan try to understand that there we had no idea this would happen."_

"_We'll talk about that when I get back Chuck. Now send Cyke up here, NOW!"_

Charles withdrew from the mans mind slowly. "Professor, vhat is ze matter?" The man in the wheelchair sighed, turning his head to face the blue mutant next to him, "I have a feeling we are all going to be in for a fairly unpleasant time when Logan arrives. I've sent Storm to retrieve him, Scott is still busy, and I don't think putting those two in the same place right now is such a good idea." Smiling at the German he turned back to Cerebro, "Time to look for Rogue I think." Putting the helmet back on he searched through the mutant signatures, looking for his missing student. After a few minutes of searching he thought he found her, and it shocked him that he could have missed it. Her mid was filled with pain, but there was a clear analytical piece that he had never sensed before. He was about to probe deeper to find where she was, not thinking that bursting into her mind was such a good idea, when he was forcefully thrown out, shutters slammed down around her mind and he was back in his chair. He shook his head, ignoring Kurt's queries as to whether he was all right, wondering how he could have missed a mind of such power in his school. It would seem that Rogue had her secrets as well.

_Mississippi_

Rogue smirked as she locked the Professor out; he wasn't going to find her like that. Then she turned her attention back beautiful house in front of her. She walked through the door, into the living room, her footsteps catching the attention of the room's occupant. "Hey Irene ah've come home.

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	2. Explanations

Mississippi 

"Rogue? Oh Rogue my child welcome home." Shakily the woman stood and held out her arms stepping forward Rogue rushed into them and the two women broke down crying at their reunion. When they had calmed down rogue guided Irene back to her chair while blind eyes dried from tears of happiness. "Rogue, darling what brings you back here?" Her hand was rested on her foster daughters hair, gently stroking it, and while they spoke neither seemed to note the fact that skin was touching skin. "Oh God, it was all my fault Irene, it was all my fault that she died and they were all blaming me and talking about me and I couldn't stand it anymore and I missed my brothers, and I missed being me and I just thought that it would be better for everyone if I left." Rogue was sobbing again when she finished her heart-wrenching speech, showing just how much pain she was in, she never cried. Destiny murmured soothing words to her daughter as she wondered what had gone wrong from her vision. Noticing that Rogue had fallen asleep, obviously exhausted from the last few months she laid her down on the chair, covered her with a blanket and moved into the kitchen.

Picking up the phone she dialled a number and waited for the answer. "Hello." A male voice answered, and Irene paused for a few seconds before she spoke, thinking. "Hello? Look who the hell is this?"

"Todd, it's Destiny."

Westchester 

"How the fuck could you blame her for that?" Logan roared at the three teenagers cowering in the chairs before him. She was your roommate, your girlfriend. How could you do that to her?" They were blatantly terrified of the man before them, to scared to answer, and he didn't improve matters when he slammed his claws into the wood panelling a few scant millimetres away from Bobby's ears. Jubilee, making a vain attempt to sound nonchalant cracked her gum and spoke to Scott who was standing by the door. "Mr Summers, you've been here. You've seen what she's been like; always quiet, ignoring everyone who speaks to her. And we can blame her because it's her fault. Bobby was there, he saw it, she landed the plane where it got stuck, and if that hadn't happened Jean wouldn't have had to get out and die. You lost you fiancé Mr Summers, you can't say that there isn't a part of you that doesn't blame that skunk haired freak." She cracked her gum again when she'd finished, a smug look was on her face because she believed that he would agree with her. She wasn't expecting the beam of red energy that slammed into the wall behind her, knocking her forward off her chair. Startled she looked up into the stony face of Cyclops. "Don't talk about Jean like that Jubilee, do you think that Jean would have blamed Rogue? No, she wouldn't. Rogue couldn't have landed that plane anywhere where the same think wouldn't have happened, the ground was soft and the weight of the plane sunk it."

"Well why did she have to try and play the hero anyway?" That came from Bobby. "If she'd have just stayed where we were everything would have been alright.

This time neither Scott nor Logan were given a chance to yell at him, instead Storm took her turn. A lightning bolt hit the legs of his chair, and a mild electric shock was sent through him, just enough so that he could feel the pain. "If Rogue hadn't moved the plane **everyone** would have died. We could never have got back to where we left the jet in time." Her voice was like thunder and she truly looked like her namesake.

The teenagers were terrified now; Jubilee and bobby were still making noises about how it had been her fault, and how everyone in the school knew it, even though every word they said made their teachers faces grow grimmer and the Wolverine's angrier. Kitty however had listened to their words and was starting to comprehend just what they had done to the girl who had been her best friend. Tears glistened in her eyes as she realised that there was truly nothing that could have gone differently, Jean's death was an accident. But before she could say anything the professor rolled in with Kurt behind him. Surveying the scene before him he came to the conclusion that he was going to do absolutely nothing about it. He had sensed the pain in Rogues mind for those few brief seconds, pain caused by his students, these three in particular. They deserved everything they were given in his opinion, except maybe Kitty; he could feel her growing regret and understanding.

Turning his attention back to the X-men, "I have found a rough location for her, she is in Mississippi, the general area of Caldecott County I believe. That was where I sensed her the first time. But she locked me out of her mind before I could find a definite location. That is what we must ask her when we find her, how she could lock me out." He paused for a few seconds, pondering that issue. "But you should be aware that she may not be there anymore, that was several hours ago, and I sensed a great need to move around in her mind, like yours Logan."

"I'll go and prep the jet." Scott left the room as soon as he had said that. Rogue was a quiet, shy girl who always seemed to be holding herself back because of her skin, like he did because of his eyes. Although he never spoke to her a great deal he used to go into the library to grade papers while she was doing homework and they just sat there for hours in companionable silence. She was holding secrets about her past he was sure of it, probably something to do with how she had thrown the professor out of her mind.

Logan, Ororo and Kurt moved to follow him. Rogue may have been quiet and shy but she had manoeuvred her way into all of their hearts, especially Logan's, and when he found her he didn't know whether to destroy his image and hug her or kill her for being stupid enough to run off.

When they reached the hangar they found the jet ready and waiting. "I've got the coordinates of where the professor sensed her." Scott told them while the other three strapped themselves in. "Logan could you find her scent even after a few hours. If you can then we'll just follow that until we find where she is, or where she's been." Nodding at the affirmative grunt from Logan the basketball court opened and the jet flew into the sky.

A few hours before, Irene's house, Mississippi 

"Destiny, what you doing calling us up yo."

"Call me Irene Todd please, and can you get the rest of the boys together and put this on speakerphone, I have something to say that I think you all should hear." She waited while he put the phone down, and jerked it away from her ear at the sound of his yell and the thundering sounds that responded to it.

"HeyReneywhat'sup?" That was Pietro.

"Rogue is here boys."

That silenced them, she could here the shock emanating from the othr end of the line.

"Whatsshedoingthere?Isshealright?"

"What's up yo? I thought she was at some school."

"What's the matter with her Irene."

"We can tell something's wong."

They all spoke at once, and kept on repeating their quetions, not giving her a chance to answer until, "SHUT UP!!", that was Lance, "Irene?"

"Thank you Lance, Rogue ran from the school. One of the professors died last onts and she has been blamed for it. Rogue had to fly the jet or no one would have got out alive but the ground was soft and the plane stuck. Jean, I believe the name was, she got the jet out of danger but died while doing so. From what I can understand the students all blamed Rogue. She misses all of you, she needs you. She has a destiny to fulfill and she cannot do that while she is battling this pain. She cannot do it without you."

There was silence and Irene hoped that Rogue's necessary departure hadn't led to the Brotherhood wanting to sever their ties with her, no matter how much they still cared about her.

"Pietro, run down to Irene's and pick up Rogue. Go, Now!" There was a startled silence and then an audible rush of air. "Todd, go and sort her room out, make the bed and try and get rid of the dust."

"On it yo."

"Fred, you and me are gonna go shopping. Get all her favourite stuff in. Sounds like our girl needs cheering up. Irene, Pietro should be there in about half an hour. He on't go too fast 'cause he'll need the extra energy to bring her back."

Then all she could hear was the dial tone. Hanging up her phone she smiled, Rogue was really going home now.

Approximately two hours later the door bell rang and Irene came face to face with the X-Men.

The occupants of the small town of Caldecott whispered behind their hands at the strangers wondering through their town. A tall clean cut brown haired man with red sunglasses, a tall chocolate skinned woman with startling white hair, a man with a foreign look about him, blue hair, and colourless tattoos that just raised his skin all over what they could see, and a man with untamed hair who seemed to be growling and sniffing! Like a dog trying to find a scent.

They left the town at the end of the main street and started to go down one of the paths leading to the old houses. The animalisticone in the leadlooked as if he was heading to the Adler place.

"Logan, would you please try not to attract so much attention from the locals." Scott spoke through gritted teeth, all he got in reply was a grunt and an abrubt change of direction. Rolling his eyes behind his shades he followed, and he was followed in turn by Kurt and Ororo who were talking quietly, with Kurt absentmindedly fingering his image-inducer.

About fifteen minutes after they left the jet they came across a house that Rogue's scent disappeared into. Knocking on the door they were mildly surprised when it was answered by a woman who was obviously blind, taking into account the sunglasses, the off-centre gaze and the white cane in her hand.

"Ah, you must be the X-Men, please come in. I've been expecting you." They stepped past her into, each wondering how she knew who they were when she couldn't see. Once she closed the door she accurately led them into a sunny conservatory and asked them to sit down. The wicker table was filled with an assortment of biscuits and cakes, and there was a teapot with five cups. Asking Ororo to pour the tea and telling everyone to help himself or herself she settled onto a chair, asking the tea she was offered and holding it on her lap.

"Before you ask where Rogue is let me first tell you that she left my house about an hour ago." Holding up a hand to forestall any questions or exits she continued. "Please allow me to tell you everything that you need to know about Rogue before you rush off and try to find her.

Rogue is my foster daughter; she lived here with me from eight years to thirteen. Before that she lived with her mother. Her powers first developed when she was eleven years old, it was understandably a very traumatic experience for a little girl, although Rogue was already extremely mature for her age due to the circumstances of her life, the battles, physical and mental she had been involved in. I doubt she would have coped if it hadn't been for the son of a friend of mine. He looked after her, took her under his wing. He became her big brother in everyway but blood. They got matching tattoos on their shoulder blades, the Chinese symbol for family.

When Rogue was thirteen and Pietro was fourteen they had to leave Caldecott and move into a house in New York with three other mutants, Lance, Todd, and Fred, the house was run by Rogue's mother and it was a place for them to train their powers.

About two years after they left they realised that they were being trained to fight against normal humans. As they didn't believe in that the five of them ran together, on the way the other three got the tattoos as well.

Eventually Magneto caught up with them, he and his Acolytes fought them and severely injured Rogue. She told her brothers to go ahead and she would find them eventually. Reluctantly they did.

That took place in Canada, which I believe is where you met her Logan. Rogue's injury was mental, all the psyches in her mind were let loose by a telepath and the whole time she has been with you she has been working on rebuilding the walls, trying to regain the control she once had over her skin. She had just achieved it when the disaster at Alkali Lake took place."

Throughout her story her audience remained quiet, trying to reconcile this dangerous sounding girl with their Rogue. "I can give you the address she will be at with her brothers, but I have to warn you that rogue is back now, she will be different that the girl you knew." Nodding the X-Men took the address and left. Too shell-shocked to do anything else.

_Meanwhile, a rundown apartment in the centre of New York city._

Four teenage boys and a teenage girl were sitting at a table loaded with food, they were laughing and joking, and Rogue was gloveless. The Brotherhood were truly back together.

Pleas review people, please! ï ï


	3. Dancing

I own nothing.

"After Liberty Island everything was normal for a while, except for the attraction my new highlights caused. A few people were going on about how I was trying to be a martyr for the mutant race or some crap like that, but I just ignored them. Then after a while Logan came back, then that night the mansion was invaded by soldiers, we got out and ended up at Alkali Lake, there Jean died trying to get the jet off the ground. And they've all been blaming me because I was the last one to fly the thing. I just couldn't stand it anymore so I went to Irene, hoping she knew where you were. She did, and that's that." Popping a lemon sherbet in her mouth Rogue ended her story with a cheeky grin and a shrug. She was sitting in Pietro's lap, her head resting on his shoulder and her legs spread over Fred's lap with a selection of sweets resting on them. The other boys were spread over the floor, helping themselves from bowls of crisps and candy.

"Why didn't you come back as soon as you got the psyches back behind the walls?" Todd asked her, looking a little hurt at her supposed desertion, he was a few weeks older that her and they had always been the baby brother and sister. "I had all of the old voices trapped behind the walls, but then there was Magneto and Logan to deal with, and my skin was out of control again. I wanted to get all of it under control before I came back, I would have come sooner but I didn't think you wanted me after I left you." Tears filled her eyes at that, she didn't want to act like this but she had missed them so much. Instead of replying they all piled on top of her, pulling her into a hug, all scolding her for being stupid enough to think that. Suddenly Pietro zipped out from under the group, causing them all to collapse on top of each other. "Letsgoclubbing." He blurred, jumping up and down, everyone stared at him in confusion, except Rogue. "Piet we can't I don't have anything to ,what'dyousay?" During the exchange the other boys had been turning their eyes from one to the other, like they were watching a tennis match. When Pietro grabbed Rogue's hand and pulled her out of the pile of bodies they all collapsed further into the rickety sofa. They all turned their heads in unison to watch as they ran into Pietro's bedroom and all winced at the sound of something falling over. After a few minutes Pietro came running out again dressed in torso-hugging silver shirt and skin-tight black leather trousers, and stood before them, tapping his foot so fast it just looked like a blur. "Whatareyoulotdoingsittingthere,comeongetchanged."

"Huh?"

"Get. Up. Get. Changed. We're. Going. Clubbing." He said with pronounced enunciation. When none of them moved he decided to try yelling, "MOVE!!" They scarpered, each running to their bedrooms and slamming the doors.

Twenty minutes later four very impatient and well dressed teenage boys were standing in the hallway waiting for their newly returned sister. "What is taking her so long yo?" Todd whined, leaning against the wall dressed in grey corduroys and a green button up shirt. Fred nodded in agreement, dressed in an outfit identical to Todd except the shirt was a black and the trousers were a slightly darker grey. "Rogue will you hurry up!" Lance yelled down the hall, he was wearing black trousers and a white muscle shirt. They all looked up at the sound of a Pietro's door opening and closing, and jaws dropped at the sight before them. Rogue was standing there in a red leather mini shirt and a black silk top that fell just below her breasts, it was moulded to her body and the neck was scooped down to the hem of the shirt, the sleeves went down to her fingertips and were extremely wide at the ends. Coupled with thigh high black leather boots she looked devastatingly gorgeous.

Sensing what her brothers were thinking she grabbed her duster and bustled them out of the door. "Come on boys, let's go. I am going to dance the night away. I haven't been to a club in two years." She didn't give them a chance to force her to change, that was the really annoying thing about these boys, they were insanely protective and didn't like her wearing anything revealing, God knows why, they were the ones who brought her this outfit.

"I've got her scent, but I don't get why Marie would be in a neighbourhood like this." Logan looked at the three following him, eyebrows raised in questioning. Storm nodded in agreement, Scott looked thoughtful, "Irene said that Marie didn't really exist, or that if she did it was just a small part of Rogue. I've got a feeling that Rogue had been through a lot we don't know about." Kurt looked away from a window he had been studying and timidly made a suggestion. "Vhy don't ve find Vogue and ask her what is going on?" Ororo nodded in agreement and the group moved on, looking very out of place in that part of town.

The scent led them to a club called Aria; the queue for the entrance reached round a few streets and music was pounding out of open windows. Logan looked a little ill at the myriad of scents surrounding him. They looked at each other and simultaneously headed round to look for a back door. At the far edge of the building they came across a solid metal door with a huge bouncer blocking it, before anyone could stop him Logan rushed him and slammed his head against the door several times, knocking him out cold.

Cocking an eyebrow at Scott's disapproving look he wrenched the door open and they headed inside. Storm jumped and leaned into Kurt when a body fell over a balcony above them, Kurt looked on in wonder as the person stood and swore at the people laughing on the balcony. Everyone surrounding them was different to anything Ororo had seen. She had grown up in Kenya, and then moved to a rich mansion; occasionally she had entered the poorer parts of big cities like New York, but never into a place like this, everybody had died hair, multiple piercings or tattoos, if not all of them.

Logan shouldered his way through the crowds and the other X-Men followed in his wake. "HOW ARE WE SUPPOSED TO FIND HER IN THIS MESS?" Scott shouted over the din, even with his enhanced hearing Logan had a hard time making out the words. Stopping he turned to Scott and shouted that they were going to go up the balcony, "HER HAIR'S UNUSUAL, MIGHT BE ABLE TO FIND IT." They headed up and once they had shoved their way through to the railing they scanned the crowds, looking for that distinctive streak of white hair. The strobe lights were confusing Logan's sensitive vision, making it harder for him than it was for the others. Suddenly Kurt cried out and swung his arm over the balcony, following his pointing finger they could see all they could see was a crowded table, then one of the dancers at the edge turned and walked to the table and they saw the brown hair with the white streaks. That was all they could see, but it was definitely their Rogue, as one they turned and fought their way down to that table.

"Come on guys, one of you has to dance." Rogue pouted, giving them her most powerful puppy eyes, a look none of them could resist. "I've been away from you for ages and I want to dance." Apparently time had made them more resistant to pleading expressions, seeing a hand move she grabbed it and pulled Lance onto the dance floor with her. "Rogue, I don't dance." He tried to walk off the floor but she grabbed him and pulled him up flush against her. The music changed to a fast sultry beat and she started dancing, "Lance, stop being a jerk and dance with me." Giving up he wrapped an arm around her waist and they started to get back into their old rhythms. These two had always been exceptionally close, as they all were, but although they called each other brother and sister, there was something else. Whenever the five of them had gone clubbing they had always danced closer and sexier than Rogue ever did with the other boys. Wrapping her arms round his neck she whispered in his ear, "I guess absence does make the heart grow fonder." She leaned her hips forward and he grimaced at what she had pointed out. Laughing she flicked her tongue over his ear as he pulled her even closer and their arms and legs twined around each other, hands slid up and down each other and they were just leaning into kiss each other when a large hand descended on Rogue shoulder and pulled her away. Startled, with her face flushed Rogue looked up into the furious face of the Wolverine and the rest of the X-men standing behind him. Growling Logan grabbed her wrist and pulled her out, still dazed from the dance was dragged outside followed by Storm; Lance was stopped by Scott who shoved him over on the ground and followed the other three, followed by Kurt. Dazed Lance just lay there for a few seconds before jumping up and running to tell the guys what had happened.

Outside Rogue shook off her daze of lust and pulled her hand out of Logan's grip, when he turned, growling and attempting to recapture her hand she slapped him. Spinning on her heel when Storm grabbed at her she grabbed the questing hand and threw the weather-witch into a pile of trash bags. When the other two came out and saw the scene before them and rushed to help Storm. Seeing the glares aimed at her Rogue let fly. "What the hell do you think you're doing, grabbing me out of there. I was having fun for the first time in years, how dare you interrupt." When Scott moved towards her she flicked her hands and they all froze, another flick and their heads unfroze. Mouths opened and closed like fish as they tried to figure out what she had done and how. At that point the earth shook as Lance came into the alley, followed by Pietro, Todd and Fred. They headed over to Rogue, quietly asking if she was all right, then they all stared at the four frozen X-Men, a frightening sight if the only thing you can move is your head. "Rogue, what's going on yo?" Todd asked from where he was crouched on the floor.

"That's a very good question?" raising her eyebrow she turned back to the X-men. "A very good question."

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	4. Discoveries

I don't own anything unfortunately

"Ugh, God Scott, what do you eat?" With a huff Rogue and Todd dropped the still frozen body of Scott Summers onto the ratty brown couch, the others were dropped onto the floor or the armchair. Except for Nightcrawler who was posed against the wall. "You think he's heavy, try Mr Adamantium over here. Lance was collapsed against the floor panting after unceremoniously dropping Logan face down on the floor. Storm was seated a bit more elegantly on the armchair. "It would have been a lot easier if you'd unfrozen them you know." That was Todd, crouching on the floor, sighing Rogue slid down to sit on the floor next to him. I know, but I know them, I don't trust them not to start a fight trying to get me out of here." Blowing a strand of hair out of her face she sank her hair down onto her knees. One by one Lance, Fred and Pietro sank down next to them on the floor. For a while they just stayed like that, until Lance looked up and passively observed the frozen Kurt, "How long you gonna keep em like that?"

"A while."

"Serves them right for pulling you out of the club in the middle of our celebration."

"They're gonna be really pissed when they find out you kept them like this for too long."

The conversation passed up and down the line of mutants, none of them looked at each other, all disinterestedly observing the frozen X-Men. After a few more minutes Pietro sighed and looked down the line. "Bed." With staggered nods they all stood and headed into their rooms. Doors slammed one after the other and the light turned off, leaving frozen bodies waiting.

Yawning Rogue walked out of her room pulling her hair up into a ponytail. She smiled at the boys who were sitting round the kitchen counter. They were all wearing either sweatpants or boxers. Todd was balancing on a stool, head resting next to a bowl of cereal. Pietro and Lace were playing cards while Fred was cooking. Sliding onto a stool Rogue checked on the living room and found them all in the same positions as last night, including Logan, splayed out on the floor with his nose stuck in a crack between floor boards. Stifling a giggle she smiled at Fred as he put a plate with a bacon sandwich underneath her nose. Then whacked Todd on the head before giving him another sandwich. After they had eaten breakfast and bantered in the way they always did at breakfast they wet to get dressed.

When they were ready they walked into the living room and manoeuvred Scott onto the floor, leaving the sofa free for them. They carefully arranged were they were going to be sitting to give the proper sense of protective family. Rogue was in the middle, one leg curled up under her and she was leaning back onto Pietro and Lance's arms who were seated one either side of her. Todd was seated on the left arm of the sofa and Fred was stood threateningly behind all of them.

With a quick glance round to check that they were all ready Rogue flicked her wrists and the X-Men unfroze.

With a muffled roar Logan sprang up off the floor, throwing Scott into the wall, Ororo looked around dazed while Kurt toppled over with a muffled cry.

"You may sit down on the floor but you may not move anywhere else. If you take one step towards our sister we'll make Sabretooth attacking you look like a pussycat. Clear." With a raised silver eyebrow Pietro stared the X-Men into submission. Shakily they all sat down, possibly because of the energy field forcing them onto the floor. And waited for an explanation.

"Four years ago Pietro and I left our home and moved to a group home with these three. Two years after that we had to leave there, we didn't want to do what they were training us to do. For the next year we ran all over America and Canada, going where we wanted, doing what we wanted. Then Magneto found us.

There was a fight, a really bad one. The Acolytes are older than us, more experienced, Mastermind, a telepath, tore down the walls in my mind. Whenever I absorb someone the imprint of their psyche stays there, they yell at me, loudly, try to take control. So eventually I managed to build rooms for them in my head. Getting them proved to be the key to getting my skin under control.

So when mastermind loosed the psyches, everything got loose. They were taking over, so I told the boys to go on without me. They did, eventually. And I started to get them under control. I did, and then I ran into Logan. I needed a ride and took his offer. I never expected anything after that. Then I got into the whole school thing, being a normal mutant teenager, I missed this lot, but I didn't want to go back till I was fully in control again. But then people started whispering, blaming me for Jean's death. I didn't want to believe it, but no one was on my side anymore, not even by best friends and my boyfriend. I'd had it, so I left. Marie is dead, Rogue's back."

The look on her face was ice cold when she finished speaking, but the tears softly shining in her eyes gave away her distress at being blamed for Jean's death. The force field had fallen and slowly Scott moved forwards and wrapped his arms round her, whispering in her ear. "We never blamed you Rogue, you should have come to us." Drawing back he saw the smile on her face, and then the ones on the face of her brothers, he had been accepted by them for showing their sister the care she deserved. Scott was pushed aside by Kurt who wrapped both arms and a tail around the girl and was accepted as readily by her brothers. Then they all turned to the two X-Men who had still not moved.

Ororo was still in the chair, mind whirling. She didn't blame Marie, but the stories she had heard from Irene and the girl herself. What if Rogue was a danger to the children in the school, what if they were right to always be scared of her.

Logan was calming down through the fog of rage, he could smell tears coming from his Marie, and he could smell the male bodies around her, most smelling of care, one of care and stinking of lust. He didn't need to think about anything, as soon as he was fully calmed down he stood and pulled Rogue into a hug, swinging her around in the air, making her laugh.

When the laughter died down, eight faces turned to Storm, still sitting in the chair, faces wrenched into a look of confusion. "I'm sorry." She blurted out, looking very unlike her usual composed self, "I'm so sorry child." With that she ran to the door and left the apartment, the door slamming shut behind her.

In the echoing silence Rogue scanned the face of the three remaining X-Men, seeing what she wanted to see, Logan was looking fiercely protective, and her empathy was also picking up on anger at the way Storm had deserted her. Kurt looked as kind and gentle as always, and she sensed anger at the way she had been treated at the school. But Scott was the most puzzling of all. His face was impenetrable if you were trying to see what he was feeling, but his emotions were raging, anger at Storm and the school's treatment of Rogue. Wonder at how she had managed to be so quiet and caring from the life he had pieced together from Irene's story, and amazement at the close-knit family her brothers formed. "Do you guys want to get changed, I kinda left you frozen all of last night." With an embarrassed cringe Rogue leaned away into Pietro's arms as the older mutants glared at her with looks ranging from sarcastic anger to amusement. And with that they stalked off down the hallway, looking for showers and clothes that might fit them.

Please review, please.

Rogue: absorbing personalities and powers through skin-to-skin touch. But in this story she can use powers she's previously absorbed. Freezing things (not ice, just stopped), empathy, energy fields, power over metal, advanced healing, power over ice, telepathy, and any others that she has absorbed from anyone. (Basically anything I can use for the story.)

Lance (Avalanche): creates earthquakes

Pietro (Quicksilver): super speed

Fred (Blob): strength, invulnerability

Todd (Toad): massive lower body strength, really long tongue

Kurt (Nightcrawler): Blue with a tail, teleportation.

Scott (Cyclops): red energy beams out of eyes.

Logan (Wolverine): really advanced healing.

Ororo (Storm): controls the weather.

Irene (Destiny): visions of the future.

I think this is are all the main characters I'm going to use, but I'll explain the powers of anyone else I put in.


	5. Travelling

I own nothing.

"What are you guys going to do now?"

At least, that was what Rogue thought Logan had said, seeing as how he was speaking through a mouthful of food. She swallowed, looking away from him, she thought Fred was bad, but that was just disgusting.

"We're gonna travel again. See where we end up."

Fred answered, looking down at the table top, wanting to afford the confrontation that had to come, there was no way these guys would allow Rogue to just disappear without a fight. He was right.

"What."

The bellow didn't come from Logan as expected, but Scott. His face was red and he looked furious.

"You can't just run away Rogue. Everyone at that school has to know what they've been doing is wrong. You **cannot **let them get away with it."

Everyone furiously shushed him as he was drawing attention.

"I'm not running away, we're just gonna catch up on the time we missed for a while. Sort of pick up where we left off."

There was a gentle smirk on her face as she said that and her hand slid across the table and she wrapped her fingers around his, to the amazement of everyone except Logan as he could smell the feelings rolling off them. Teenage lust, sickening this early in the morning.

"We're going to travel around for a while, maybe see Europe, it'd be nice to get out of the states for a while. I'll be back at the school in about a year, okay. 'Cause you're right, there is no way in hell I'm letting that lot think they've scared me away."

There were noises of agreement from the other boys, and as Scott watched he could see Rogue blossom in a way she never had before. It was as though every moment she was with these boys her self-confidence grew. The layers she had put up to protect herself fell away.

"Graduation."

He blurted out cryptically.

"Huh."

Was the unanimous statement from everyone around the table. Faces were painted with confusion and Scott thought he'd better explain.

"Come back on graduation day. Shock everyone. It's on the 17th of June, so it's about seven months away. Long enough for you to do your travelling and then you can come back on one of the most important days of their lives."

He knew his plan had been accepted when malicious smirks formed on everyone's face.

"Why, Mr Summers, I didn't know you had it in you. I think you've been a bad influence Logan."

As Logan and Kurt chuckled Scott protested that he wasn't the straight-laced idiot everyone thought he was, and they believed him eventually, possibly. With that settled they left the diner, the teenagers planning where they were going to go first. Their travel problems were solved easily when Scott offered the jet to take them wherever they wanted to go before they went back to the school. After a few moments argument they decided on Italy, it seemed to be a good starting point as any.

After a quick stop off at the apartment to pick up clothes and anything else they wanted to take with them, they were on their way.

_On the jet_

"What are you going to do when you get there?"

Kurt asked, curious about the spontaneity of their departure and the small amount of possessions, and even less money, that they had with them.

"Don't know. That's what makes it fun."

Rogue answered him, smiling widely, in her opinion, knowing where you were going to go before you got there spoilt the whole concept of travelling. It was much more fun to point in a direction and go.

After a few hours they descended just outside of Rome.

As they left the plane, Rogue was shoved in a direction and told to check their bags for any damage, it was time for guy talk. Sticking her tongue out at Pietro's back she walked away, mumbling about how they weren't talking they were having a macho contest about who could protect her.

And she was right.

"Look, I'm just saying that if anything happens, call us. We don't want anything to happen to her."

"You thing we'll hurt her!"

"No, what he's saying is that if anything happens we want to know."

"You want to take her away from us."

Fred, Todd and Kurt were sitting on the sidelines watching as the other four faced off. Rouge was watching the scene openly, wondering who was going to punch whom first. She was betting on Lance or Logan.

Just as it was about to get physical she decided to intervene. She slid into the space between the four and held her hands against Logan's chest because he looked as though he was just about to charge Pietro.

"Will you all stop. I don't need protecting, in case your forgetting boys I'm a one woman army with all my powers and it's not like I can't fight normally either, I was always kicking your asses.

And you two, I know that you haven't got used to what I can do yet, but I can look after my self. I'll keep in touch, I'll e-mail you every chance I get and tell you about the where we are, I'll even send pictures through so you can see I'm okay. Deal."

With a smile she hugged Logan and then Scott, before turning to Kurt. As she hugged him she whispered in his ear.

"Could you keep an eye on the way back, they've gone about four days without trying to kill each other, they might try to catch up on lost time."

With a grin he agreed and teleported into the jet, he hated goodbyes, they always made him cry. A quiet Scott and Logan, both of whom had suspiciously shiny eyes, soon joined him. Not wanting to draw attention to that fact he remained silent as they took off and headed back to Westchester. Each lost in their own thoughts; Scott and Logan were both planning on ways to make the lives of the students who had hurt Rogue hell. Kurt was wondering what had caused Ororo to leave, and how he could help her.

_First month_

Hi Scott, Logan, Kurt

How are you, we're in Venice now, it's gorgeous. We've had to buy a few new bags with all the stuff I've bought, jewellery, clothes, and the masks. Oh they're gorgeous shops and stalls filled with them. I've got you all one but you'll have to wait till I get back to see what they're like. I've got about twelve for myself, porcelain ones as well as wearable ones, and I've got one for each of the boys as well. I even got them to wear them; it's one of the photos I sent with this.

I don't know why they're complaining, Pietro's worse than I am, he's bought enough clothes here to clothe a whole country. And our flat is over flowing with the phone numbers he's got. He's beaten his old record, he went on eight dates in one night, and then the next night he took six girls to one party, and they all know about each other. Why would you do that? Anyway, even Todd and Fred have been out on dates, after Pietro and I took them shopping anyway. All that means that Lance and I have the flat to ourselves quite a lot and it's great. We're doing really well. It was so stupid though; as soon as the other three found out we were together they started doing that over protective brother bullshit Which is ridiculous, you'd think they'd know by now that he wouldn't hurt me.

We'll be leaving here in about a week so can you email back quick or I won't get a chance to see it until we reach the next place, and God knows when that'll be seeing as how we don't know where we're going.

Rogue

Hello Rogue

It's good to hear from you, we're glad you're having a good time. You might be interested to know that Logan is teaching self-defence classes, and he's found that Jubilee and Bobby make very good partners for demonstrations. Logan is dreading the mask you said you got him; Kurt and I think it'll be hilarious, assuming the ones you got us aren't too bad. That photo of you all dressed up in the masks is amazing.

Storm wanted to send you a message. Hello child, I am so very sorry about what happened, I shouldn't have left you. But I always had to explain to the younger children about how you weren't going to hurt them, and Jean was my best friend. It just all got to be too much I'm so sorry. I'll understand if you don't forgive me, but I would like to become your friend.

Have fun Rogue, and the guys as well, email us when you can.

Scott, Logan, Kurt, Ororo

_Second month_

Hey everyone. Storm, there's nothing to forgive, I know what they all said about my powers. And Jean was your best friend, after hearing what everyone was saying I'm not surprised it took hold. But I swear I never meant anything to happen. I'd love to have you as a friend, I'm surrounded by so many guys it'll be great to have girl around, even if it is only through email. For the moment anyway.

We're in Livorno, there's a great market here. We've been to the Leaning Tower of Pisa, and in Todd's words, 'it's just a lopsided tower yo, what's the big deal.'

We're moving onto Greece next, probably one of the islands instead of the main land.

Hope to hear from you soon,

Rogue, Lance, Pietro, Fred, Todd

To Rogue

Rogue those pictures of the Leaning Tower are amazing, well we think so at least, Logan is a bit less pleased with them, I think he'd rather have embarrassing pictures of you r brothers again to cheer him up. He's been banned from teaching for a few weeks because he threw Bobby threw a wall, it was a funny sight really, but the professor wasn't too thrilled.

You should try Corfu if you're going to one of the islands, Jean and I went there for a holiday a few years ago, it's beautiful.

By the way, how are you getting to all of these places so quickly, and how are you paying for everything.

Scott, Logan, Kurt, Ororo

Thanks to DeamSprite for reviewing, there are definitely going to be fire works when they get back to the school.

Please review people, I love getting reviews and seeing what people think, good and critical, cause that way I can see what's wrong with it. ;)


	6. Coming home

I own nothing   
Third month 

Hey everyone, how are you all.

In case you were wondering, we took you're advice and are now in Corfu, you were right, it's gorgeous. Nearly every shop here has a sale on, Pietro and I are having a great time, we're buying clothes for everyone, it drives Lance nuts when we come back with all these bags.

Pietro's running us everywhere, he and I go on ahead somewhere while the others are packing and then when we've found somewhere nice we go and get them. I absorb his speed and we carry everyone, the hardly weigh anything when you go faster than sound. And as for how we pay for everything, Scott, I honestly don't tink you'd want to know.

Rogue :)

Rogue,

You'd better not mean that you're stealing everything young lady.

Rogue, it's Storm, ignore them, not that I think any of you were going to pay attention to him anyway. If you're shopping do you think you could pick up some things for me, I'll pay you back, it's just I want to try something new and whenever I go I can never find anything I really like. And if you could find anything for the three guys that'd be great, Logan's stuck in plaid, Scott has so many corners in his clothes it's ridiculous, and I'm not even going to start with Kurt.

Hope you're having fun

Storm, Scott, Lance, Kurt

Fourth month 

Hello all, we are talking to you know from Athens,

Oh My God, this is such a beautiful city. We've been doing all the touristy/historical things. It's amazing. We went into this gorgeous church called the Church of Panaghia Kapnikarea, dedicated to Athena, lovely, there's nothing like this back in the states.

I've got to go; we're going for a look round another part of the city.

Rogue

Rogue,

We're glad you're having fun, but we can't wait until you get back. Things have gone crazy around here. Bobby found one of your emails, he didn't read it, but he knows we've been writing to each other, and now the whole school does. It's divided into two camps.

Kitty has rallied a load of them and they're supporting you. Bobby and Jubilee has everyone else agreeing that you're dangerous (sorry).

At he moment bobby is back in the hospital wing for being stupid enough to insult you in Logan's presence. That seems to be happening to him a lot lately, landing himself in the med-bay because of Logan, in case you hadn't guessed he's teaching again.

See you in three months

Scott, Ororo, Kurt, Logan

Fifth month 

Ha, wow, everyone always said my main talent was causing trouble, guess I'm still doing it even when I'm on a different continent.

We're heading to Romania tomorrow, Pietro's old clan lives there, we're going to stay with them for a while. In case you hadn't guessed he grew up in a gypsy clan, his father gave him to the chief when he was a couple of months old.

Rogue

Hello Rogue, I'm so glad you find causing trouble even when you're that far away. Romania sounds wonderful, I hope you will enjoy yourself. You may not receive any emails for a while; there was a fight with Magneto today and everyone's exhausted. The boys have already gone to bed; I just wanted to let you know what was going on so you wouldn't worry.

Ororo

Sixth month 

Hello all,

I don't know if you'll get this before we get back but I thought I'd send it anyway seeing as how there's an Internet Café in the airport. Yep, we're on our way back, we're heading into Mississippi to see Irene and then we're going to come and see you.

By the way, Ororo you will love the dress I got for the dance, that's when we'll be there by the way.

Love you all

Rogue

17th June 

The hall was beautiful. Chinese lanterns were strung up around the walls of the room and crossed over in two strings though the centre of the roof. There was a wall made of French windows that were flung open, letting the warm summer's night in. The only light came from the lanterns, candles scattered around the room, and the starlight flowing through the windows. The wall opposite the windows was occupied by a fully stocked bar and buffet tables, which were surrounded by talking, laughing teenagers.

The graduation ball had started a few hours ago and everyone was getting into the swing of it, except for the noticeable gathering of adults in a corner by one of the windows. Logan looked very uncomfortable after being bullied into wearing a tuxedo, Scott looked handsome in his tux, and Kurt had managed to find a dark blue tux that matched his skin tone, and with a black shirt underneath it he looked very dashing. Ororo was dazzling in a soft, silky, pale blue wrap-around that clung to every curve before flaring out gently at her knees. The group was silent, with only occasional bursts of conversation; they were all tense, waiting for their girl to come home. Ororo and Logan especially, Logan was desperately waiting for his surrogate daughter to return home, he had placed her under his protection and he was desperate to be able to see her again. Ororo wanted to see her face to face, to properly apologise for running away seven months ago, Scott and Kurt were also very anxious to see her again.

Then in a typical movie freeze-frame, the music stopped, voices rose, questioning the silence, then a wave of quiet spread from the windows throughout the hall. Silhouetted against the lights from the garden were five figures. As one they took a few step forwards and looked around, smirking.

The Brotherhood had arrived.

Please review people ;)

And thanks to

**TheSouthernBelle: **yeah, I love Rogue with the brotherhood boys but I can hardly ever find any decent lance/Rogue ones, so I decided to do one of my own, not sure whether it's decent or not but it's here anyway

**DreamSprite: **thanks

**ScaliGirlHK: **I'm going to do everyone's reactions in the next chapter

**KairiChan1: **yeah, I love everything Rogue too


	7. Reactions

I don't own anything to do with the X-Men, no matter how much I wish I did.

The atmosphere in the hall had reached new heights of awkward silence, it had been five minutes since Rogue and her brothers had appeared and not a word had been spoken since. All the students were looking at each other, nervousness and anticipation warring on their faces as they waited, the professor and a Hank, the new doctor had come into the hall at some point, Scott and all the others were still standing frozen in the corner.

The five newcomers were still standing just inside the French window, coolly observing the dance, sneers and smirks carefully painted on their faces, giving off an impression of powerful superiority. Their clothes only increased the image they were projecting. The boys were all in black dress trousers, with different colour silk shirts, in Todd, Pietro and Lance's case they were worn open over form fitting white wife beaters. Todd was in forest green; Fred in grey/blue, the colour of a storm; Pietro was molten silver; Lance was black shot with small silver threads. Pietro and Lance were standing by Rogue; Lance had an arm wrapped around her waist, Pietro was just behind her left shoulder, arms crossed, the other two were on either side of Lance and Pietro, arms folded like Pietro, and each one looked deadly, but it was Rogue that exuded the real power.

She stood in the centre of her family; her brown and white hair was left loose, falling in gentle waves to the small of her back. Her arms hung down at her sides and she had obviously dressed for the dance. A long black dress that flared out gracefully from her waist, it had thin spaghetti straps, but the most unusual feature was the white gauze attached to the straps and on a band around each of her wrists, forming a cape of sorts.

During the oppressive silence she looked around the hall, it was well done, but after all the places she'd been a bit simplistic, and very yellow, Jubilee must have been on the decorating team. She swept her eyes over the large blue man standing just behind the professor, he must be the new doctor Scott had told her about, her gaze lasted a little longer on the professor, her empathy could sense the surprise rolling off him, but there was also a sense of pride. She could see Kitty, Jubilee and Bobby huddled at the front of the crowd, Bobby seemed to be locked in a staring contest with Lance and the rest of the boys, she could feel the heat of their stares rushing past her, Kitty was cringing, occasionally looking up at her, then looking down as though she was ashamed, as well she should be. Jubilee was the only one staring at her, smirking at her Rogue sent a whisper of a thought to her ex-friend who was dressed in a small, tacky, bright yellow dress.

"_You're not worth my time."_

With a smug look Rogue walked forwards, passed the onlookers, any who thought it would be a good idea to try something was quickly dissuaded by the looks of the young men who were with her.

Proudly they walked over to the huddle of teachers, without pausing Rogue reached on her tiptoes and wrapped her arms around Logan.

"I missed you."

"Me too kid."

Did you give Bobby that black eye?"

"Yep."

"Cool."

The entire exchange was quiet and to the point, but neither made any effort to hid the quiet chuckles when they looked over to Bobby to admire Logan's handiwork, the good news was that Bobby had somehow found a suit that matched his colourful eye.

"See, we brought her back in one piece for you."

Sardonic humour was threaded through Todd's voice, he still couldn't believe these idiots hadn't thought they would look after they're own baby sister. Well, you couldn't really call her Lance's baby sister anymore because that just brought up very bad thoughts, and they looked happier dating anyway.

"Just as well you did."

That was Scott, about that time the tension between the males went up a few notches as they all started glaring at each other, for o good reason other than they liked doing it, that or it was something about being face to face as they had been corresponding regularly by e-mail. Shaking her head and laughing softly she walked through the alley created by the two groups of warring males and caught Ororo up in a hug that was gladly returned.

"So you guys want your presents?"

With that they departed in a cloud of blue smoke provided by Kurt and Rogue. The hall was left in uproar as all the students started shouting complaints to Xavier.

"She can't stay here!"

"She's dangerous."

"It's her fault Jean's dead, you can't expect us to let her stay here again."

"Did you see those thugs she was with."

"_SILENCE"_

The thought ripped through their heads, quieting them all to the same degree that Rogue's reappearance had, except this silence was mental as well.

"This is Rogue's home as well as yours, if she wishes to be here and to bring her brothers with her then she is free to do so. And if I here one more word, mentally or verbally, about Rogue of her guests there will be serious repercussions. Now go back to your rooms. The ball is cancelled. Now!"

They scarpered. They had never seen the professor lose his temper like that before, it was a terrifying sight. Within thirty seconds the hall was devoid of life apart from Hank and the professor.

"What now?"

The soft voice sounded out of place coming from the large blue 'monster', but it was a valid question.

"That is up to Rogue and her family. I phoned her foster down in Mississippi a few months after she had left, in her opinion Rogue should stay here for a while. But I'm afraid it is up to her, and if those boys don't agree, she will not stay."

With that they left the hall, the Chinese lanterns still glowing.

Hi, please review; I wasn't sure if I'd one this right. I had this image in my head of how it should be but I'm not sure if it came out right.

**LizaGirl:**

**DreamSprite: **here's the next update, I hope you all liked it :

**Demonkitty2007: **

**ScaliGirlHK: **


	8. All kinds of presents

I don't own anything

"Did you see their faces?"

Rogue collapsed with laughter again, leaning back into her boyfriend's chest as she pictured the faces of all the mutants who had made her an outcast, jaws dropping in shock as she reappeared in the middle of their graduation ball.

"You probably scarred icicle for life."

Logan was laughing just as hard as Rogue, only he wasn't laughing, it was more of a mixture of chuckles, sneers and smirks, all wrapped around a cigar.

"Logan, you shouldn't be so mean to the students."

"This coming from the woman who sent a bolt of light through Jubilee's desk when she started insulting Rogue."

The serene weather goddess blushed pink when the tale of her temper was told.

"Whoo, looks like you're not quite as calm as you say yo."

Todd had to duck out of the way when Storm flicked a hand towards his head. A motion that made everyone burst out laughing at the injured look on the teens face, not that they had ever really stopped since thy left the hall ten minutes ago. Suddenly Rogue sat up in Lance's lap.

"Who wants presents?"

Kurt shouted out and clapped his hands, then blushed indigo when he realised no one else had said anything.

"Well you're going to get them anyway."

With a nod from Rogue Pietro gave each of the X-Men a heart attack as he ran off the side of a building. As they dashed to look off the edge they nearly went into cardiac arrest for the second time when Pietro reappeared on the side of the building, this time holding large, very full bags. When he saw the looks he was getting from the X-Men and the way the Brotherhood were nearly in hysterics he guessed what was wrong.

"What? My powers super speed, I'm too fast for gravity to catch hold of me, so I can run up and down buildings if I want. It's not like I'm going to jump off the roof, there are too many girls out there that haven't had the pleasure of meeting the great Pietro Maximoff yet."

He probably would have continued with his self-congratulatory spiel but Rogue had detached the cape of her dress and flung it over his head.

"Now be quiet."

Was said amidst hoots and laughs from the boys while Pietro struggled to get out from under the gauze.

With that Rogue started giving gifts to the X-Men, there were masks from Venice that she made them put on, Storm actually managed to pull off a blue and black mask divided by a lightning bolt down the middle, with blue and black feathers forming a headdress at the top, the guys just looked ridiculous in their, although they were made to keep them on long enough for blackmail photos to be taken, mainly because Rogue had frozen them in place.

There were clothes, although Scott didn't seem to fond of the gold fish net muscle shirt Pietro had brought him.

"What? I should think it's about time you tried a new look."

Was the silver haired mutants only defence before he passed a shirt with a logo made up of a halo formed of the devil's tail to Kurt.

"I thought it suited you, soul of an angel in the body of a devil, according to some people anyway."

Rogue smiled as Kurt pulled the shirt on over his dress shirt, it actually really suited him.

Logan seemed to like the sword they got from Athens, he terrified Todd when he made several practice swings over the teens head.

There was jewellery and nice clothes for Ororo and more insulting t-shirts interspersed with some nice ones for the guys, and all kinds of other things that they'd picked up on their travels.

Finally all presents had been delivered and they were all scattered around the roof either sitting in comfortable silence or quietly talking. At least they were until Fred interrupted.

"What happened to the party, I haven't heard any noise from it since we left?"

"The professor will have ended it."

"What?"

"Why?"

There was an outcry at Scott's answer, what possible reason was there to cancel a perfectly good, if somewhat staid party.

"He didn't want to hold it in the first place, but he felt he had to."

It absolutely amazed Lance how the weather-witch could be so calm when her fellow X-Men were grinding their teeth.

"Do you remember how three months ago how Scott told you that Bobby had found out you were keeping in touch with us, and that the school was divided about you, some siding with Bobby and Jubilee against you, some siding with Kitty for you.

Well it just continued, whenever the slightest argument started one person would always bring up whose side the other was on in regards to you, and then all kinds of insults were thrown."

"I always said my best talent was causing trouble."

Although she didn't show it everyone on the roof could see how being the cause of all out warfare was affecting Rogue, and the Brotherhood moved in closer to her, offering support.

"I'm sorry Rogue. Anyway, about two week ago there was a fight throughout the whole school, every pupil was using their powers, and as they said that the cause was you, apparently Bobby had got someone to hack into Scott's email and was reading all the letters you sent. After that the professor didn't think that they deserved the dance, they could have the usual ceremony out by the lake, but no dance. Only they all complained and promised that there would be no more fights, about you or anything else, and so the professor let them have the dance, on the condition that if anything else was said about you it would be immediately cancelled."

"And as soon as we left I could hear 'em going on about you kid, Chuck wouldn't have stood for it."

Logan reached over and seized the hand of the woman he considered to be his little sister, if not his daughter.

"What are we going to do, I mean we can't stay in the mansion with them, God know what'll happen, and we have to stay here, Irene said and Destiny's always right about these things only she doesn't tell you why, I mean you think she would tell you if you were getting caught up in one of her schemes but she never does and I really should talk with her about that…"

She was cut off by Logan's hand moving from holding her hand to covering her mouth.

"You're babbling as fast as speedster over there. You don't have to stay on the mansion."

That elicited various comments from the X-Men which Logan just ignored while the Brotherhood looked on in interest. Rogue was now nestled into Lance's arms having managed to wriggle her way free from Logan.

"Shut up." The Canadian roared. "Give me a chance to finish.

There's a cottage down in the woods by the south wall. I think the gardeners must have lived there years ago when this was a private house. The point is that all it needs is a bit of fixing up before anyone could move in, a few paint jobs, plumbing and electrics and you're set to go."

A smile that looked oddly gentle on him lit up his face, a smile that grew even stronger as Rogue launched herself into his arms.

"Thank you, thank you, thank you."

She squealed as she covered his face with kisses, which made him look very embarrassed as she pulled away, dark plum lipstick really wasn't his colour.

"Hold on a minute Rogue, you'll have to ask the professor first. Although I doubt he'll say anything but yes."

Scott was laughing as well, and pretty soon all the others joined in. Rogue's and her brothers' happiness was infectious.

"We're going to have our own house again yo."

"Thanks Cyke."

"You guys aren't bad."

"How big is the kitchen?"

"You'll all help us fix it up won't you?"

The questions were answered in the affirmative while Scott smacked Pietro on the head for calling him 'Cyke'. Then after much cajoling from Ororo and several yawns from the teenagers they 'ported inside, and eventually a room with five beds was found for them all to share.

"Welcome home Rogue."

Was the last thing the adults said before leaving the mansions new occupants to their own devices.

QueenNarca: thanks; I love all the rogue pairings, especially the uncommon ones.

Chica De Los Ojos Café: thanks

DreamSprite: I'm glad you like it

Sirenic Griffin: why the ball got cancelled is in this chapter, shadowcat will appear and the other names will appear, it'll just take a while.

Please review (by the way, apparently people without accounts couldn't review but now I've changed it so please do) :D


	9. Breakfast

I don't own anything

_The next morning_

"Hey you two, wake up yo."

With all the patience of a three year old Todd ripped the blue duvet away from the dozing Lance and Rogue as they reused to move. An act that left him open to a flying pillow and various curses from the two on the bed.

"Leave them alone Todd. I would have thought you'd have learnt by now that it's impossible to get those two up in the morning. I remember what they did to you in Corfu."

Todd winced at the memory and glared at Pietro for bringing it up. Even though he had only woken five minutes ago, next to Lance and Rogue Pietro was the one of the five that most hated mornings. He had had a shower already, was impeccably dressed with perfect hair and was now sitting cross-legged on his bed, making fun of the rest of them. Sometimes Todd really hated the fact that his power super speed, it just made him so much more annoying, and you could never catch him!

He was distracted from his glaring contest with the speedster by a very long, very depressed groan from Lance. He was sitting up in bed, no shirt on, sleep in his eyes and his lower lip stuck out in a pout, staring soulfully at the door to the bathroom that Rogue had flown through a few seconds ago, obviously too tired to bother walking. He was just about to yell at Pietro who had been making various comments when the door to the bathroom swung open and a finger appeared around the doorframe and beckoned to her bag which unzipped, and pushed a pile of clothes into the air before zipping shut again. As though they were attached by a string the pile of clothing floated over to the slim finger and once they had entered the bathroom the door closed with a bang. The silence that had descended when the door opened fell away as though it had never been there and Lance opened his mouth to yell at the speedster, Fred started speculating about breakfast while Todd just hopped about the room. In fact they didn't stop until a pillow hit Lance.

"Bathroom's free babe."

Swiftly kissing her boyfriend Rogue shoved him toward the bathroom and settled down to play cards with the other boys after Todd had unearthed a pack they got in Athens with pictures of all the Gods. Lance always spent ages in the shower; they couldn't all have superspeed after all.

_Half an hour later_

"So now what?"

Lance had appeared about five minutes ago but had waited for their game to finish before interrupting.

"Breakfast of course. Fred's stomach has been rumbling for ages, you really shouldn't spend so much time in the shower you know. At least when I'm not with you."

However that last bit was said so that only he could hear, which wasn't difficult seeing as how she had stood and folded herself into his arms, she may love the other boys but there were some things that they just weren't supposed to know.

"Just go down to breakfast, with all the other kids here, areyoufuckinginsane?"

None of the others could understand the last speedy talk part of the sentence, but the gist of it was very clear, especially because they were all thinking the same thing.

"No. They ran me out of here last time and they're not going to do it again. Besides, I know Jubilee and the rest of the gossips in this school; there'll be hundreds of stories flying around about you. We might as well shock them by not caring, and give them a proper show at the same time."

A wicked grin appeared on each face as all the Brotherhood realised just what she was saying.

_At the dining hall: breakfast_

It was loud, that was the only word Logan could use to describe breakfast at this school. Cutlery, plates, book bags, all banging about all over the place. Voices fluctuated between whispers as the teenagers shared secrets, and screams as they spoke to someone a few tables over. But this morning every whisper, every scream referred to Rogue and the guys who had crashed the ball with her the night before, and to the five seats that remained empty at the teachers table.

Jubilee was one of the loudest, flaunting theories all over the place, but she stopped in mid-screech when the object of her speculations just calmly walked through the open doors.

The five teenagers didn't seem to notice the consternation they were causing, instead they just walked through the aisle between the tables heading to the teacher's dais.

They bore absolutely no resemblance to the dangerous group that had interrupted the ball, instead they appeared to be perfectly normal and comfortable with each other.

They were all dressed in jeans of various colours, from the palest blue, more from wear than design, to midnight blue, fading and rips were the only sign of decoration on any of their clothes. Fred and Todd each wore a short sleeve t-shirt, Fred's pale blue, and Todd's a muddy green, Pietro had a silver short sleeve button down shirt, and Lance a grey wife-beater. They each had a matching thick silver chain around their necks and although Lance was the only one who showed the Chinese symbol on his shoulder the other boys all showed another design somewhere on their bodies.

Pietro had a group of vines twisting around each wrist, thick ropy vines with big, sharp, pointy thorns interspersed between the ropes. Todd had a circlet of barbed wire just showing underneath his sleeve, and Fred had a very complicated Celtic cross running between his elbow and his shoulder, the cross bar circling the entire width of his arm. Lance had a flaming dagger on the base of his neck with two ribbons of flame encompassing his neck to meet in the centre of his chest. And there were probably more all over their bodies in the opinion of all the 'good' boys and girls who watched them walk passed.

But it was Rogue who shocked them the most, they hadn't really paid much attention to her last night, but she was different from the girl they had known. Dressed in a plain white halter top and dark blue jeans with a plain silver cross and small silver hoops, the tattoo the all shared showed on her shoulder, and there was a dragon with its wings spread wide over her back. But the main difference was the fact that she wore no gloves.

All the time they had known Rogue she had been nice, friendly, but shy, as though her gloves put a large wall between her and everyone else, but now. She was pressed into Lance's side, his arm around her shoulder, hers around his waist. They were all laughing and joking as they made their way to the empty seats by Logan and the other teachers, ignoring the whispers that had broken out. One especially loud burst of laughter drew everyone's eyes again, just in time to see Rogue swiping at Todd before Lance pulled her in closer, and as they'd reached the table he sat down and pulled his girlfriend into his lap where he proceeded to kiss her thoroughly. Both of them ignoring the hoots and cat calls from their friends and the glares that Scott, Kurt and especially Logan directed towards Lance.

"Break it up you two."

Storm finally crashed their party and pried the couple apart, directing Rogue to her seat with only a small pout from the smaller girl that was followed by a larger smile directed at Professor Xavier.

In the continuing silence everyone could hear their conversation before a stony glare from Pietro made them start swapping rumours again.

"Please Professor, please, please, please!"

The cry that came from all five teenagers simultaneously managed to draw everyone's attention back to them. They had entered the room twenty-five minutes ago and it was only for the last two minutes that conversation had moved onto something other than those five.

From the looks on the teachers' faces they had been begging for whatever it was for a while. Finally with a sigh the professor spoke up.

"All right. You can move into the old cottage, but there are conditions. It must be fully repaired and safe before you move in, and you will eat at least one meal every day in the mansion."

But it was unlikely that the Brotherhood heard his conditions, they had grabbed hold of Logan and Scott and yelled something about going to see this cottage, wherever it was.

As they sauntered down the aisle, laughing and talking away with Scott and Logan, Kurt and Ororo had stood with them and they were all excitedly talking about this cottage as they left the room, all oblivious to the whispers. _They couldn't be moving in here, could the? The professor wouldn't allow, she's too dangerous." _And other statements of that ilk.

Everyone was silent, including the nine trying to leave, when Bobby stood and confronted them. He had obviously had his confidence puffed up by Jubilee and the others that they were sitting with. His hands were folded into fists and ice was forming around his feet, and when he spoke his voice was filled with ice.

"Take your hands off of my girlfriend."

depressionisanillusion: yeah, punctuation isn't my best thing, hopefully this chapter is better, although there still are some long sentences, if it's still bad please review again and tell me and I'll try to make it better.

Dory Shotgun: thanks, but you'll have to wait and see what happens next.

Sirenic Griffin: no problem, I hope you liked this chapter

Chica De Los Ojos Cafe: here's the next update for you

LizaGirl: thanks, the Bobby bashing should be in the next chapter, as you may be able to tell from the ending

Please review again ;)


	10. The cottage

I don't own anything.

The silence was deafening, even the birds and insects outside that had been heard through the open windows had shut up. Rogue was oddly detached, she had a feeling that she should be doing damage control, trying to stop Lance from killing Bobby, but she wasn't. It looked like it was shaping up to be one of those gunfights out of the old westerns that Fred loved.

Lance had taken his arm away from her and had stepped towards Bobby.

"What did you say?!"

He sounded incredulous although there was a healthy dose of threat in there, and he had a reason to mock the other boy's statement. Bobby was at least four inches smaller than Lance, and his build was a lot lankier than Lance's, and the only muscles he had came from the occasional danger room workouts that a few of the older students were allowed to do, while Lance's strong build and muscles came from everyday work. The clean image of blond hair and blue eyes didn't stand up very well next to the dark chocolate eyes and the shoulder length dark brown hair. Whatever Bobby was trying to do he didn't have a chance.

"I said get away from my girlfriend."

His voice was shaking a little now, while he had been sitting with his friends and hearing them say that he was an X-Man in training and that he could take the boy with his arms around Rogue, it was different now he was standing alone in front of him.

"She's mine, she might be a poisonous slut but she belongs to me."

He couldn't avoid the fist that was thrown at him, and he couldn't stay standing when the ground started to quake. When everyone else in the hall started screaming and tried to run away from the hall, which seemed to be the epicentre for a localised earthquake, very localised, it was only affecting the hall, although that was bad enough as the tables were slipping and sliding over the bucking floor and Hank had lifted the professor out of his wheelchair and swung him out of a window. The four teachers were too busy gaping at Lance to even think about interfering, except for Logan but he thought that Bobby deserved everything he got. Although they knew Rogue's brothers were mutants they had no idea that they were this powerful, to be able to cause such a strong quake, but limiting it to only this one room!

"Bobby don't do this. You don't care about me anyway."

He didn't listen to her, Rogue had always known Bobby was stubborn, and not the brightest match in the box, but she'd never thought he was suicidal. The only reason he was still alive was Pietro and the others had left him to Lance. And Lance was trying not to kill him because of her hand on his arm, reminding him that she was there and he shouldn't really rip the bastard into little pieces.

"You're right, I don't, and I never wanted you to come back here. But this is my school, and you belong to me, no one is going to take what's mine, no one!"

All the time he had been heading closer and closer to Rogue, until he was practically spitting on her face. But before he could do anything else he was flattened by a fist that slammed into his jaw with bone shattering strength. Instead of collapsing onto the floor he was caught by Pietro but instead of setting the boy back on his feet the silver-haired mutant grabbed onto one arm and sped off at his top speed, two seconds later Lance disappeared. Pietro had come back and taken him, swiftly followed by Todd, and then Fred, although at a minutely slower pace, although the speed reduced the weight, there was still a lot of Fred to carry. All that took place within about 15 seconds, and again there was silence since the floor had stopped shaking once Lance left. Rogue was left standing in the middle of a breakfast hall, all the tables were over turned and everyone was staring at her. Jubilee was trying to look threatening but she couldn't quite pull it off with a banana peel on top of her head.

"So, are you going to show me this cottage?"

Without waiting for an answer Rogue wrapped her arm around Logan' and pulled him out of the door, sending a shy, almost embarrassed smile at Kitty. The poor girl was lying in a puddle of orange juice, and remembering what Scott had said about Kitty being on her side Rogue decided she'd be nice.

Neither Logan or Rogue spoke, and they were both ignoring the half finished sentences from the three behind them. Rogue was trying very hard not to send a telepathic spike into her family's psyches, a very slow and painful way to die, and after what they'd just done she wouldn't mind killing them. The hall was ruined and God only knew what they'd done to Bobby.

It was after about five minutes of brisk walking, during which Logan swore that he could see steam coming out of Rogue's ears.

"Well kid, what do you think?"

He didn't get an answer; they had just rounded the corner to the clearing with the old cottage in it. There was a small pond nearby with a small jetty leading out into the near centre. The cottage was two stories high and fairly large, there were at least four rooms on each floor, possibly more. Although the paint was peeling in a few spots the outside of the cottage seemed to be in good condition, and the roof was whole, no missing slates.

"Logan it's great."

With a swift hug Rogue sped off to have a look inside while the others followed at a more leisurely pace.

"What do you think the boys did with Bobby?"

"God knows, and he's probably the only one who cares."

"Logan!"

The Canadian didn't look at all ashamed of his comment, despite the ferocious glare coming from Storm.

"He's right Ororo, you can't say that he doesn't deserve anything they do to him after what he said about Rogue."

Kurt nodded his head in agreement with Scott, causing Ororo to throw her hands up in the air and move ahead of them into the cottage. Muttering something about how Kurt was supposed to be a religious pacifist.

It was about an hour later when Rogue and Ororo had dissected every room in the place and started thinking about how it should be decorated, while the guys were busy with the more boring job of figuring out just hat needed to be fixed and replaced in each room. It wasn't actually all that much, the electrics were all still in good shape, and the plumbing only needed a little work, and the whole thing was still structurally sound, so it was mainly just the redecorating. In fact the whole thing should only take about two to three weeks.

They were all seated in the main room, on the floor since the furniture that had been left behind was in various stages of decomposition, when the four boys walked through the front door. They completely ignored the glare they were getting from Rogue, which must have been searing holes through their bodies, and the slightly lesser glare from Storm.

Rogue, thinking that their smiles were far too wide for a conversation about plumbing ground out between her teeth:

"What the hell did you do to him?"

I finally got it up, I started this chapter days ago but everything kept getting in the way of me finishing it.

LizaGirl: I hope you like this chapter too

Chica De Lose Ojos Café: you'll find out what they did to Bobby in the next chapter, I hope you like this chapter.

Dory Shotgun: he did it because he's possessive, he doesn't like the boys, he doesn't think they're good enough to be in his school, because it's his school and everything in it belongs to him, including the things he doesn't want anymore.

DreamSprite: I hope you like this update

depressionisanillusion: I hope the punctuation is all right in this one, and I hope you enjoyed it

AnGeL BoRn N hElL: I'm so glad you like it, and I hope you like this

idril200315: thanks, and I hope you like this

Please review everyone :)


	11. Shocks and shopping

I don't own anything

Kurt had never realised quite how expressive silence could be, at the moment it was heavily laced with the guilt emanating from the four boys, and the heat coming from Rogue's glare. She may have been the youngest of the five, if only by a few months, but the way they were squirming and all trying to hide behind each other and get away from her stare.

"Where is he?!"

It was ground out between her teeth this time, as though she was having a hard time not physically harming them, as it was things were starting to shake.

"Nothing much, honest."

"We just made sure he wouldn't cause any more trouble."

"He'll be too scared too."

"No one talks about one of us like that."

"You didn't honestly expect us to just take it. Did you Roguey?"

"Come on sis, don't be mad, you'll love what we did to him."

Pietro giggled the last bit, which just left all the rest of the rooms occupants with a feeling of dread.

Inside, Xavier and Beast watching a news report 

"As many of you will know. A few years ago the Statue of Liberty was the stage for a mutant uprising, fortunately it was halted before the mysterious white energy could cause any harm. But it appears as though it is not the scene for another mutant unrest, except this seems to be more of a prank than a revolution.

A few minutes ago a boy appeared on the top of the statue, he appears to be dressed only in underwear, with a blindfold, and appears to be tied to the statue. Right now the police and the firemen are working on how to get him down, after which they shall take him into custody and try to find out exactly hat has happened here today."

Hank stared at the TV, coffee halfway to his mouth; the professor sat in his chair, hands folded on his lap, fingers curled around a mug of hot tea.

"Oh dear."

In the cottage 

"You did what!"

The boys all winced, backing away from the angry teachers, Scott and Ororo had been the only ones to react so far. Rogue was hiding all emotions, Logan was sniggering outright, and Kurt still seemed to be digesting what they'd said.

"How could you be so stupid?"

"And irresponsible."

There was barely a beat between their sentences. They were about to start again when Rogue interrupted.

"They gave him what he wanted. Bobby thinks that he's wonderful, a tower of purity, a statue of liberty. That's what they gave him, only they made him look just as stupid there s he usually does. Not bad boys."

And with a smirk she hurled herself into the eight waiting arms, for a few moments they laughed as the boys told her in detail what they'd done and how Bobby had reacted, completely ignoring the adults. Before she turned to Lance and smacked him lightly on the arm.

"Did you have to destroy the hall, the place will never be the same again."

And with a laugh she reached up and kissed him.

"Rogue! You can't be condoning this!"

Scott was shocked, mouth hung open, in a similar fashion to Storm's, although she managed to look a bit more elegant.

"And why shouldn't she."

"Kurt!"

"He deserved it Ororo, after the things that he has been saying. They were ungodly, and you can't say that this isn't a Godly and...liberating…act of revenge."

Rogue stared; the blue mutant was smirking in a way that was decidedly familiar.

"Logan what on earth have you been doing to Kurt?"

That evening 

"Hey Ororo, what do you think of this for the kitchen."

"It's nice, what about this for you bedroom?"

"No, Lance would hate it."

Steadily ignoring those implications about a girl she still considered a pupil, the scared child she had rescued from a burning truck. The thought of her not picking a colour for her new bedroom because Lance wouldn't like it was a bit much.

Turning away from the purple section Ororo wandered over to where Rogue was examining a deep green, like an emerald with a faint veil of black drawn underneath the surface.

"That's nice."

"Yeah. It's for Todd's bedroom, his room at the boarding-house was that colour, only a bit, duller."

Adding two tins of the green paint to Ororo's cart she surveyed what they had.

"All right, green for Todd's bedroom, silver and black for Pietro's room, blue and grey for Fred, pale yellow for the kitchen, white tiles for kitchens and bathrooms, cream paint for bathrooms, pale blue for conservatory.

So we just need a colour for mine and Lance's room, and a colour for the living room."

"What about this." Turning Storm showed Rogue the colour she had been thinking of for the living room, a mixture between burgundy and blood red. "And you'll be able to set it off with some of Pietro's black paint, just for some highlights."

"And you said you had no sense of style."

Giggling Rogue took the tins from her friend and dumped them on the pile in the cart. For a few more minutes they both wandered through the paint aisles.

"Hey 'Roro, what do you think of these?"

Catching her friend's attention Rogue showed her a selection of metallic paints, back, red, pink, green, all with a metallic sheen.

"I think this one, and this one. Do you like them?"

The weather witch studied the two tins, a metallic, almost silver black, and a dark rose metallic colour.

"I think they're great. But will Lance like that one."

"He'll live with it. Come on, I think we're done now."

With a sigh the two of them headed over to the checkout, ignoring the looks they were getting as they somehow managed to manoeuvre the three, bulging, shopping carts, filled with paint, curtains, tableware and all the other thing's they'd need. The furniture had been put on order and would arrive in the next couple of weeks.

About forty-five minutes later they'd finally finished loading everything into the van. As Ororo pulled out she said.

"Scott's going to kill us you know."

"Yep, I know."

Hey, I hoped you like this chapter. Thanks to:

depressionisanillusion: I hope you like what they did with Bobby

Rogue200315: thanks, it took me ages to actually write something and post it, I'm just glad people like it

Veronica: hope you like what happened to him

Pyra-Vamp-Chick: thanks

Chica De Los Ojos Café: I hope you liked this update

Ms. Rockette: thanks, I hope you like the rest of it

DreamSprite: thanks, hoped you liked this one

LizaGirl: hope you like what happened to him

Please update again :)


	12. Surprise visitors

I don't own anything, unfortunately.

"Come on you two wake up!"

"One-eye insisted that we eat breakfast with them today in case you forgot."

"And we were supposed to have been there fifteen minutes ago."

Fred, Todd and Pietro were all banging on the door to Lance and Rogue's room, trying to wake up their missing family. What they weren't expecting was for the door to fling itself open, sending them all flying backwards. Lance was standing in the doorway, cotton pyjama trousers slung low on his ships, faint lines on his bare chest from where he'd been laying on an uneven pillow his hair all mussed up and flying in a hundred different directions. As the three boys looked on the caveman growled, raising his fist as he prepared to fiercely defend his territory.

"What the fuck do you three idiots think you're doing? Wait; don't answer that, I don't wanna know. Just go away, tell One-eye that were alive, but we have absolutely no intention of dragging our asses out in that rain for a fucking breakfast."

With that he retreated back into his den and slammed the door, and just to enforce that fact that he didn't want to be disturbed, they could hear him drag a heavy object, probably the table across the door so they couldn't open it. Not without breaking it anyway which would get Rogue on their case.

"So, breakfast anyone?"

"Have they gone?"

"Yeah."

After Lance had barricaded the door he slid back into bed and wrapped his arms around the adorably sleepy Rogue. Her hair was tangled, her face pale, a long red scratch blazing from the ivory skin on her shoulder from where she'd slipped yesterday and caught it on a sharp twig. The strap of her tank top had twisted round and slipped down her arm, but she'd never looked more beautiful. It had to be that he wasn't properly awake yet, he'd never be thinking this poetry crap otherwise.

"Can we just stay in here all day, completely shut the world out."

She sounded like a five year old.

"I was planning on it. We've spent three weeks sorting this place out, painting every room, complete with ceiling, we've hauled all the new furniture in, I've had to spend more time in Todd's room than I ever wanted to. Today we are not leaving this room. And if anyone complains we'll just tell them we're allergic to cats and dogs."

And with matching smiles they sank back down on their pillows. Doing nothing took a lot out of you, and the sound of rain falling was a soothing lullaby to fall asleep by. And Lance didn't feel the slightest bit of sympathy for his brothers who were out there when it was pouring cats and dogs.

-------------------------------------------------------

"Do we have to go Rogue?"

At her nod Lance sighed and pulled himself into a black hoodie. A rip in the front showed the tips of the flames encompassing his neck. Smiling at her sulking boyfriend Rogue leaned over and lightly kissed his forehead before she threw on her leather trench coat.

"I know you don't like going up to the school babe, but it was one of the conditions for us being allowed to live here. And they have got better."

"No, they haven't got better. 20 of them aren't pulling out stakes and crosses whenever you walk by, that's it. The rest of tem are just as bad, if not worse. That ex of yours especially. Why the hell did you ever go out with him."

"It seemed like a good idea at the time."

He obviously wasn't satisfied with her answer but knew it was useless to argue with her, besides; he loved threatening the little icicle, he still whimpered every time one of the boys walked past. It was hilarious.

As soon as they were ready they left their bedroom in a cloud do indigo smoke, and reappeared at their customary dinner table. They then proceeded to laugh and enjoy an evening with their brothers and their friends. Ignoring Pietro's remarks and Logan's growls about what they'd been doing all day.

It was actually a fairly quiet dinner, there were only two earthquakes and they were very faint, more like very mild aftershocks. And Todd only pulled someone of their seat with his tongue once; it was a vast improvement over the first week.

At Ororo's insistence after dinner they all moved into the TV room to watch a film, it was while they were walking through the foyer, arguing about what they were going to watch when disaster struck. Magneto, Mystique, Sabretooth and Pyro were all standing there talking to the professor who had left the hall about ten minutes ago. John was standing there, flicking his lighter, but he froze as he saw Rogue, but no one noticed the flames going out of control.

The boys had all gathered around Rogue and Pietro and were glaring at the Acolytes. The older three Acolytes weren't much better off, staring at the Brotherhood in shock. The professor was just confused, he could hear their minds shouting half finished questions, 'what the…' 'Why are they here?' 'What's going on?", but he couldn't quite see what they were all so worried about. Or he didn't until Rogue and Pietro spoke.

"Father."

"Momma."

I updated again, I hope everyone like this chapter and please review :)

Nicki: here's the update, I hope you liked it

Veronica: I'm glad you like what happened to Bobby, and I hope this chapter fulfils your expectations

FoxyRogue: I hope you liked this chapter too

Rogue200315: I can't wait for the film either, it should be great

Elmo the puppet: glad you like it so far

Chica De Los Ojos Café: hope you liked this chapter too


	13. Outbreaks

I don't own anything

"Rogue."

"Pietro."

It looked like a scene out of an old western film. Two gangs facing each other down in the street. Guns at the ready. Rogue's emerald eyed had darkened and hardened until they looked like green, almost black chips of granite, her fingers were tense, just waiting for a chance to latch onto either of the older mutants. Pietro's eyes were the solid grey of storm clouds; his silver hair was waving about slightly from the way he was moving on the spot so fast it looked as though he was standing still. The other boys were standing behind them, looking really pissed off.

Xavier was about to ask for an explanation when events took another turn. Mystique had taken a step forwards. To do what he didn't know, when she was slammed into a wall. Magneto moved forwards but found himself flung against a wall, the wall melting around his hands and feet, then solidifying once him limbs had been pulled in. Sabretooth found himself rolling around on a floor that was rocking around like stormy waves. Before John had a chance to do anything he was grabbed around the waist by a slimy tongue, and then thrown into a wall by a big blonde boy.

60 seconds and the acolytes had been reduced to battered hall decorations. Rogue had put up one of her force fields around Sabretooth and Mystique. Magneto was glaring and trying to pull himself out of the wall.

"Rogue, boys, stop this immediately."

The command was followed by a clap of thunder that jarred all the bones in the immediate vicinity. The murderous light that had filled the eyes of the Brotherhood as soon as they'd seen the visitors fled.

Rogue and Pietro seemed to collapse in on themselves, their shoulders slumped and their heads drooped. The other three boys huddled around them, keeping the two deflated teenagers in their midst. Like a living wall protecting them from the evils of the world.

"What the fuck are you doing here?"

The question was spoken in a snarl instead of a voice, low, guttural and dangerous. Surprisingly though, it wasn't Logan who'd spoken, or even Lance, it was Todd. The teenager was crouched in front of Rogue, lip curled back, growling at the grey haired mutant who was trapped in the wall.

You'd have thought that his undignified position would have taken some of the pomp from the Master of Magnetism, but he still managed to talk as though everyone who could hear him was beneath him.

"I assure you Toad," his nose wrinkled when he said the boy's name, "why I and my companions are here has absolutely nothing to do with you. I had no knowledge that you were here. Any of you."

His gaze had slid away from Todd and was focused on Pietro, eyes the colour of granite boring through the pale teenager.

"Rogue. Could you let these people go! I don't know what is between all of you but I will not have this behaviour in my school."

For Rogue it seemed as though the professor's voice came through a thick fog. It was muffled and sort of wavy, as though the sound waves were being pushed and pulled in all kinds of directions, and it was hard the sounds to coalesce and form the words. In fact she didn't really process his request until Lance repeated it in her ear. With a soft nod and a wave of her hand the force field around Sabretooth and Mystique collapsed, and Magneto fell from the wall. John stood on shaky legs and joined the other three and glared at the green kid whose tongue had been wrapped around him. Ugh God. How did that tongue fit in his mouth?

He tore his gaze away from frog-boy, slid over the big blonde who'd thrown him into the wall. The silver boy who was glaring at his boss held no interest for him, neither did the other boy. Instead his gaze was dragged to Rogue. No one else in the school had known but the two of them had been really close. She'd had frequent nightmares of experiments and concentration camps, and was never able to sleep again after one. Hen that happened she'd wander down to the kitchen where he would always be. He was an insomniac, usually grabbed sleep whenever he could and as awake through the night. They stayed and talked until about half an hour before everyone else woke, then they returned to their rooms, and no one else had ever known. He'd found out all kinds of things about her then, and vice versa. But she'd never mentioned anything about Mystique being her mother. And that had to have been what she'd meant.

"Would it be all right with everyone if we took this into my office. I have a feeling this could take a while."

As one the brotherhood turned and headed for his office, leaving everyone else to follow them. Logan growling at the Acolytes who'd upset his little sister.

Magneto and his group were the last, just outside the office they paused.

"Eric, if Rogue and the others tell them not to they'll never work with us. And we need the extra firepower if we're going to pull this off."

"I know Mysitique, I know. But they're still our children, and even if they hate us."

"Which they do."

"Then they will still work withy us because they'll want the end result to happen. The end justifies the means my dear Raven, the end justifies the means."

I finally finished this chapter, it's been sitting here for ages.

Ashley: thanks

Chica De Los Ojos Café: hope you liked this update

Nicki: I'm sorry this took a while

FoxyRogue: hope you liked this chapter too

Kyna: sorry this took a while

Veronica: I hoped you like this chapter too

Shaishe: I hope you liked this

Elmo the Cajun: they got out of control because he was so surprised at seeing her.

Dreamsprite: hope you liked this chapter too

Roue200315: what are you confused about?

Mm4ever2gether: I'm glad you like it so far and I hope keep on liking it

Please review again :)


	14. Plans

Hey, remember me, sorry it's been a while since I updated, I've had so much stuff to do at school recently I just haven't had a chance. Again I don't own anything, no matter how much I dream. Enjoy.

"No fucking way!"

Coming from two equally irate persons, neither of whom seemed to have a very tight grip on themselves, instead trusting others to make sure that they didn't lash out (or cursing silently for not being allowed to lash out), the three words carried a lot of weight and menace. Rogue's eyes were literally glowing a vivid green, and Pietro was thrumming with repressed energy, the Brotherhood was surrounding them, the X-men a living barrier before them, but still leaving them room to see the acolytes before them. Xavier was seated behind his desk, fingers steepled beneath his chin.

"Rogue, Pietro! Please."

The professor's voice didn't carry quite the 'snap', that it usually did. He still seemed to be in shock, it wasn't everyday that you found out that you're oldest friend had a son you'd never known about. And it wasn't even as though he'd been born when after they'd fought and gone they're separate ways. And as for Rogue, well! He'd heard about her mother from Storm after they'd come back from Mississippi, (via New York), about the training facility the teenagers had lived in for two years. But the thought had never even entered his mind that her mother could have been Mystique.

"Thank you Charles."

Magneto's voice was so smug and supercilious, but if you listened closely enough, or took advantage of the fact that he wasn't wearing his helmet you could detect a thread of pain running through his mind, or his thoughts, pain and loss. And Mystique, well, her pain was more evident if you knew how to look, eyes a darker, more painful yellow, one corner of her mouth twisted into a minute grimace.

"You can argue all you want children. But we all know that you will assist us. It would haunt you forever if you didn't, besides you want a chance to fight alongside us again, prove that you're better."

No doubt in his voice, he knew he was right when he said that, knew enough of their minds to know exactly what they would think or feel, and it drove the X-men nuts! The Brotherhood were their protégées, the next generation and part of their family, and the Acolytes knew them better than they did.

"Say we do agree to work with you, how do we know that you're going to leave us alone when it's over?"

"How do you know you're going to want to be left alone?"

That was it. The earth started rumbling, Fred took a step forward, Todd hopped up on a corner table, but before they could do anything Rogue beat them to it with a well-aimed tk blast that sent the Walking Magnet into a wall. This time they didn't even bother with the other Acolytes, instead they disappeared with a sulphurous BAMF. Then all hell broke loose. Cyclops let fly at the immobilized Magneto, a blast of lightning hit Sabretooth, swiftly followed by another that shot from a very irate Storm's fingertips, Kurt grabbed John and teleported his lower half into the floor, including his hands so he couldn't use his lighter, while Mystique was just a hairs breadth away from being shredded in blue, bloody pieces and served up on a silver platter. It would have been a decisive and wonderfully satisfying massacre but unfortunately, or fortunately, depending on whose side you were on, Xavier decided to step in and freeze everyone before they could commit murder.

"Stop this at once all of you. Logan Rogue has not run off again she and the boys are in the Danger Room working out some issues I would presume. Erik stop provoking my X-men or you will I will make you believe you are a three year old girl with a 'My Little Pony' obsession."

In the following silence Logan could have sworn he'd saw Magneto's mouth shape the words 'Dear God not again'.

"Very well Xavier. They should be down there for about an hour, and when they've finished, they'll agree. I know my daughter."

* * *

"We'll do it."

"But there are conditions."

"We know we'll have to coordinate with you during this, but afterwards you leave us alone."

"Unless we all lose our minds and actually want to associate with you after we're through this."

"Which we won't."

"Oh and professor, you need some new Acolyte droids in the Danger Room, we broke 'em all."

The five teenagers had burst into the office, shattering the uncomfortable atmosphere.

"When do we leave?"

"As soon as Cyclops here deigns to ready his jet. He seems to be under the misapprehension that we don't know our own children."

The cultured, slightly accented voice was tinged with the perfect amount of hurt, designed to make the X-Men explode. But unfortunately for his entertainment, they didn't rise.

"I'll go prep the jet."

"I'll help."

Scott walked out first, back stiff, jaw gritted, and tension radiating from every pore. As he stalked past Rogue reached out and brushed his hand with her own, which calmed him down a miniscule amount, meaning that his upper and lower jaw separated a few millimetres from each other. Storm walked past them next, the picture of serenity, bestowing a gentle smile upon the 'obviously defiant but hiding it behind whatever emotional detachment they could scrape up' teenagers, but outside the weather had taken a violent turn for the worst. Kurt followed silently, flashing the kids a quick smile, and the door banged shut behind them.

Not wanting the silence to become stagnant and oppressive Charles spoke up.

"Would you like to be told the details now or on the plane?"

"Don't bother professor, we already know what the plan is."

Lance's mouth was twisted up in a sarcastic grimace, seeing the bald man about to ask what he meant Pietro picked up where he left off."

"Fly to Canada, Storm gives us cover as we land close enough to the base to be able to make a quick getaway if we have to. We find a guard, Todd grabs him, Rogue touches him finds out any code we need, Mysti gets us in. Take out any guards we find on our way to the containment cells which Rogue is leading us too, if the first guard didn't know the way we'll have found another one. At one point we'll split up, Sabre', Daddy dearest, Lance, Fred, Todd, probably Logan and Scott will go to the cells, the rest of us will find all the data they've got stored from their experiments and destroy it. Once that's done, depending on how many test subjects there are we'll either fit them all on the Blackbird or steal a cargo plane, which they will have around, military bases in the middle of nowhere have to. Fly away, the people we've so kindly rescued will decide what the hell they're going to do now, and we all live happy ever after.

That close to what you all decided in our absence."

The kids smirked, so did their parents, John and Xavier looked surprised, and Logan and Sabretooth growled deep in their throats.

"Lets just get this fucking thing over with!"

RoganLuvr: I explained it in this chapter, but in case I didn't make it clear enough, coz I didn't just wanna come out and say it, I wanted to build the image up, (don't know if it worked or not), but they're breaking mutants out of a testing facility.

VB: Sorry, I thought I'd put it at the beginning of the story but apparently I haven't so here it is for everyone: **Todd was not involved with the Liberty Island thing, he had no part in the films in my story line.**

Chica De Los Ojos Café: hope you liked this update too.

Nicki: glad you liked it, and you'll find out the answer to that soon enough if you keep reading, I don't want to give it away.

DreamSprite: glad you liked it.

Shaishe: sorry it's been a while.

Mm4eva2gether: sorry it's been a while, and I hope you got what the mission was from the chapter, and if I didn't say it clearly enough it's in the review for RoganLuvr.


	15. Breaking and entering

I don't own anything

"Oh God, I'm not getting paid enough for this."

Rogue's depressed statement was primarily ignored, she'd had been muttering similar things under her breath for the last ten minutes, ever since she'd touched the guard. He'd looked like a slimy bastard and according to Rogue appearances weren't deceiving. When she had first started complaining about him, Wolverine had told her to be quiet and focus on her mission, and the other X-Men had agreed. Of course she hadn't listened and had continued complaining about the jerk in her head, and eventually the X-men realised that she knew what she was doing and she wasn't going to get distracted.

So far everything had gone fairly smoothly, the base was slap bang in the centre of a large, thick creepy forest, (aren't the always) and the Blackbird had been able to set down only a few metres away from the outer fencing. The area had already been misty so Storm's covering fog hadn't attracted too much attention, a magnetic field, courtesy of Magneto had hidden the jest from any scanners located within the forest, and Rogue had displayed a very useful and previously unforeseen talent and camouflaged the jet so that it blended in perfectly with the surrounding woodland. Of course someone would know it was there if they walked into it, but that was highly unlikely (knock on wood). A guard had been found and assimilated with relative ease, and for the last fifteen minutes they had been heading towards the cells, after they had found a computer terminal and Mystique had looped the camera feed. The two separate groups had been decided the way Pietro thought they would, brute strength and offensive powers were breaking the cells open and disposing of any opposition, the other group combined smarts and mainly defensive powers to destroy any records of this place.

All the corridors looked the same, built of the same matt grey, occasionally relieves by the odd splash of a lighter matt grey, the hallways were curved, so you were walking through a tunnel. Unless you were paying minute attention to the floor or the walls it looked as though you weren't moving. Magneto had explained that the trick was just to look straight ahead, and pay no attention to your surroundings. Of course the Brotherhood had already known, Magneto's bases were always based on that design, but it was quite funny to watch Mags and a purposely obtuse Wolverine arguing about the functionality of ordinary square corridors, and how there was no need for circular ones, at least until they had realised they were starting to make a bit too much noise.

Five minutes later they reached a bland grey junction with five other pathways leading off it. Deadened to a dull aching whisper Rogue's voice was hardly distinguishable from the white noise of air purifiers.

"This is where we split. Team B down the…third to the left from this tunnel. My Team A down…the tunnel two to the right."

"Hey! We're Team A, you're Team B."

"No, we're Team A, you're Team B."

It could have gone on for a while, but a growl from Sabretooth interrupted their fun and they had swiftly moved on. Rogue, Pietro and their followers had less distance to travel, but the central computer core, which is what they were going to annihilate was in the middle of the base, and consequently surrounded by soldiers and scientists. So they had to wait in a small side room (after incapacitating the occupant) for Team B! to create the distraction.

It wasn't the most comfortable of environments, besides being the same monotone grey, with darker grey furniture; Storm and Mystique were filling the small space with a solid body of tension. The uncomfortableness was almost a living breathing entity that pulsed between them, after trying to defuse Storm; Kurt had retreated to a corner and was telling Pietro stories of his days in the circus. After roughly ten minutes the distraction arrived, and not a second too late.

The heady silence was breached by a wailing klaxon that sounded the same monotonous, ear-splitting note over, and over and over again, the cacophony accompanied by flashing red lights that nearly blinded Nightcrawler and Mystique, not that she would ever admit it. The sound of the alarm was almost, but not quite, blocked out by the sound of dozens of feet rushing towards the alarm's origin.

Looking through the small opening between the door and the wall Rogue could see platoons of soldiers in camouflage uniforms sprinting past, guns gripped between steady hands. People in civilians followed them, a couple with handguns of their own, then came the scientists, white coats flapping, glasses flying off their noses they were squawking about how the 'dangerous specimens' would damage some of their more delicate experiments in that area. A few headed into the central computer core, but there were only a few, added to the number already in there that were monitoring everything there would only be about 10, not enough to give them a problem. 30 seconds passed while they waited for the hubbub to slow, then they pounced.

Pietro first, speeding into the core room, immediately knocking over the scientists close to the door, Rogue had followed him at the same speed and taken care of the others. By the time the others had made it across the hall they were already seated, fingers flicking across keyboards, huge block of text appearing and then disappearing, only to be replaced with yet more text. Mystique joined them immediately, sitting down at another terminal, and pulling a stack of CDs out of a bag she'd bee hauling along. After locking the door Storm and Kurt went through the cavernous space with a fine tooth comb, looking for any physical records and stockpiling what they found in the middle of the room, a large meal container was found and deposited next to the files, Kurt pulled out a box of matches and started burning the files, only to have more thrown in on top of the ashes, ready to be burnt.

* * *

"FUCK!"

An animalistic growl erupted from Wolverine's throat when the klaxons sounded, the harsh sound ripping through his delicate hearing, his eyes had the same problem with the lights, and Sabretooth wasn't doing much better. The two mutants were practically helpless for until Cyclops found the klaxons control and blasted it while Mags took out the other lights. Obviously those weren't the only control panels for the alarms, but the noise and light decreased dramatically, allowing Wolverine and Sabretooth to function again. Angry at the incapacitation the two stormed past their team and flung themselves through the final door between themselves and their quarry. The white door crumpled under their weight and they went straight through to land on and maul three of the scientists who had been checking on the specimens. The others swiftly followed them, a red beam taking out one more, a hunk of door flying through the air knocked another one out cold, and a sixth was lifted up into the air by a green tongue and hurled into the far wall. Meanwhile Magneto was constructing a solid wall in the ruined space. John was melting the control panels for the cells, laughing manically as the metal dripped down the wall and sparks flew. After incapacitating the boys in white coats and building a door the others joined in and gradually they made their way down the long room. As the clear plastic doors slid back, slowly, and then with more confidence, the occupants came pouring out.

They reminded Magneto of his days in Auschwitz. Skeletally thin, some unable to stand up straight without support from others, who didn't look in any better shape. Those furthest from the door were in slightly better condition, obviously the base's most recent acquisitions. All of their hair was long, limp and straggly, bags large enough for a round the world tour hung under every single eye, skin was stretched tight over unnaturally large bones and was an unhealthy, sallow complexion, and each one was terrified out of their minds. Some of the younger ones looked as though they were trying to be angry, just in case these people were going to take them someplace else, it was an obvious front though. One girl could only have been about thirteen, she was in one of the rooms furthest from the door so her body wasn't in such bad shape as it could have been, and she was obviously trying to look tough, but her eyes were hollow. Whereas others had had their eyes aged by the experience, hers were blank, running on a teenager's defiant instinct, nothing more.

It only took twenty minutes to release all the mutants, but Magneto's improvised was being battered the whole time. He had stopped opening doors after a few minutes, instead concentrating on incorporating every shell and bullet into the wall they were fired at.

"Cyclops, the Blackbird isn't going to be nearly big enough to fit all these people in, there's got to be about 70."

Toad's voice was quite timid; the sheer awfulness (there was no word to describe ho bad it was in the green boy's vocabulary) was an oppressive weight that pressed down on them all, no one wanted to speak too loudly, respect for the tragedy Todd supposed. He just wanted to get out of there, it was too spooky, Rogue would have hated it, she'd always been sensitive to these things, too sensitive if you asked her brothers but did she ever listen to them and stop getting so involved? Noooo!

"I know Toad, I think we're going to have to go to plan B."

"Steal a cargo plane."

"Two."

Their conversation was broken off by a large crash and a dent appearing in Magneto's door, followed by an anguished cry coming from the silver haired mutant himself. Sabretooth grabbed his boss as he was about to fall to the floor, the Brotherhood members in the room jerked, as though they wanted to go to the two Acolytes, but thought better of it and stayed where they were. That might have been the first time any X-Man but Charles had ever seen emotion of any kind on Eric's face, and it didn't last long. It was quickly covered and his voice came out as strong as it could be considering he was slumped in Sabretooth's arms.

"We have to leave now!"

"They're throwing some sort of acid against the door, I can't hold it for much longer!"

"You're not much use then are you."

Logan growled and turned away looking for away out, he wasn't expecting to walk straight into Fred, who spoke quietly, so that only the X-Men contingent who was gathered close together could hear him.

"When he's manipulating the metal it's like it's an extension of him. Bullet's slamming into is like being poked **really** hard, but the acid will feel like it's being poured on him."

He didn't wait for a response, not really expecting one, the X-Men, Logan in particular would never accept Magneto as a human being. To them he was a man who'd betrayed their mentor, even though they didn't necessarily know the whole story.

Meanwhile Lance had been talking to Magneto and Sabretooth and was now gently ushering the frightened mutants out of the way, ignoring the feebly brave insults tossed in his direction by the few with enough spark left to fight. Once he had a clear space he rolled his eyes back into his head as the ground began to shake. Shouts were easily heard through the rapidly thinning metal as the quake spread, but the general skating diminished after a few seconds as Lance focused his power. A crack appeared at the base of the far wall, two more grew the wall, and then split to join into one running across the top of the wall. Creating a square that disintegrated into a pile of rubble as the shaking continued.

"Shall we go?"

The flippant remark was accompanied by a cheeky grin; the Brotherhood and the X-men started ushering the shell-shocked mutants out, following the smell of fuel in an effort to find the planes.

Hey everyone, sorry it's been a while, hope you enjoyed it

Ears: hope you liked this

Theblondeone07: glad you like it so far, hope you liked this chap too

DreamSprite: sorry it's been a while

RoganLuvr: sorry it's been a while, hope you liked it

Mm4eva2gether: hope you liked it

Please review everyone, I love them.


	16. Happy Endings

I don't own anything.

* * *

"Fred I realise this'll be a stretch but do you think you could avoid a few missiles, just a few."

Pietro didn't get an answer as Fred was too busy flying the plane to suitably respond to his sarcasm and everyone else was just ignoring him. The two groups had met at the airstrip without any complications, Lance had created a crevice under all the soldiers outside the holding cells that they'd fallen down and Magneto had covered with several sheets of metal. His powers had been given back their vitality through anger at how he had been weakened in public, even worse, before X-Men. As a result of lots of zigzagging through corridors the large procession hadn't encountered any of the bases personnel, and they had managed to load all the mutants into two of the planes, with only a few minor scuffles with guards that had been dealt with before they could raise the alarm. The group had been split fifty-fifty, with one plane piloted by Brotherhood, the other by Acolytes, each had one X-Man onboard, and the other X-Man had been headed off for the Blackbird. The problems had started with take-off.

Obviously two cargo planes couldn't take off without attracting some attention, but it seemed as though Magneto had under estimated the number of fighter planes in the base. The Blackbird had joined them and was trying to help but the three planes were being swarmed under, missiles shooting at them from every direction. And it seemed as though** every single one** was hitting the Brotherhood plane.

They'd been in the air for twenty minutes now and under fire the whole time, Magneto was building a shield around his plane and Rogue was deflecting as many missiles directed towards her plane as she could, and Storm was taking care of the Blackbird's defences. But unless they could pull a big finale out of their hats, they were fighting a loosing battle. The mutants from the base were clutching each other, eyes wide and scared, staring at the Brotherhood who were all clustered around the controls, Rogue held in Lance's arms as she defended their plane, The three boys throwing ideas back and forth, but they weren't really getting anywhere. There was one plan they knew would work, but none of them wanted to suggest it. Then one missile struck far too close to home, sparks flew from the control panels and the whole craft juddered uncontrollably.

"Sorry."

The collision had dragged Rogue out of her daze and now she was staring up at her family, eyes half closed, apology written in the lines of her face. Not that their passengers understood that seeing as how they started to mutter about how she wasn't protected them properly. Complaints swiftly quelled by a few hard stares.

Several long, silent moments passed after the collision, Kurt was travelling around the back, trying to calm down the frightened mutants, the Brotherhood had their eyes attached firmly to the control panels, and the problems indicated there.

They were losing fuel far to rapidly, the fuel tanks must have been hit at some point, they were losing altitude too, and sparks and burnt plastic could never indicate something good in their experience.

"Fre…ietro…L…ce. Will…of…yo…id…ots…answe…yo…damn…radi…!"

The message was nearly inaudible because of all the static but, and the on/off switch was red hot when Fred tried to switch it, but he managed it in the end, Rogue was too exhausted to flip it telekinetically.

"We're all alive Dad, just about anyway."

In all the excitement no one noticed the casual, almost affectionate way Pietro spoke to his father, or what he called him, except for Magneto himself of course.

"Wel…jus…nderful…bu…did…u…hav…to…giv…us…al…your…opp…nent…we..ha…nough…of…

our…own."

Sarcasm was distinguishable even through the static.

"Uncle Erik would you quit complaining. And if you're doing anything vital hand it over to someone else. We need to do something drastic or we're not going to get out of this."

Logan noticed what she called Magneto; he'd stayed with the Acolytes to keep an eye on them, but he didn't have time to think about that just yet.

"Lance sit down, Erik, I'm going to meld you with Lance. The two of you can start a quake in the planes, rip them apart, I'll try and keep this hunk of junk in the air."

A few garbled syllables that sounded vaguely like Logan could be heard over the radio but they were cut off quickly. Rogue wasn't paying any attention anyway, she'd already sunk deep into her mind, blocking out everything else.

* * *

Swirling ribbons of energy surrounded Rogue as her astral-self materialised in her mind, behind the coloured veils thick oak doors could be seen, behind which were the psyches who had once made her life such a living hell, but were now happy tenants.

Walking through the corridor she ignored the doors, heading instead to a round door, built of the same heavy oak. It swung open as she approached and she walked into a room remarkably reminiscent of Cerebro, that was in fact where she had copied the new design for this room. The spherical walls were made of the same energy that roamed free out in the corridor. Standing on the platform she reached with her thoughts and pulled two bands of energy towards her, one black with small shots of white, the other steel grey. Face scrunched up with concentration she twined the two together, when she had a strong rope she flung it up above her head. It passed through the curved ceiling, and it you had been outside Rogue's head at that time you would have seen Lance and Magneto collapse to the floor, eyes rolled all the way back in their heads.

Outside the fighter planes began to quake, the very atoms that made them shaking apart, the ceaseless attacks on the escaping mutants as the soldiers found themselves with more immediate problems.

But Rogue didn't have time to wonder how the two men were doing, after she'd tossed their powers out to them she'd raced out of her astral Cerebro and headed straight to one of the doors, throwing it open, startling the rooms occupant out of six years, or she would have if the occupant had been alive.

A pair of rich chocolate brown eyes looked up from a body that was slouched on an overstuffed green sofa. The eyes belonged to a lithely muscled young man, maybe twenty-three years old, seeing Rogue he jumped up and would have started to say how wonderful it was to see her and complaining about how she didn't visit him nearly enough, but the look in her eyes discouraged him.

"What is it Roguey?"

A tanned hand cupped her cheek and brown eyes looked deep into green as Rogue struggled to recover from the supreme effort it had taken to bind the power of two alpha mutants together.

"We're in a plane. The plane is falling. Very fast. Need your help. All of your power."

Short disjointed sentence conveyed the urgency more that anything else could have. So they didn't say anything else until they were back in her Cerebro room.

Fingers entwined Jack focused on the well of 'white-glowy-stuff' as he so scientifically called it that represented his very strong telekinetic power and sending it through their joined hand to Rogue. A spike of the 'white-glowy-stuff' was coming from her forehead, breaking through the multi-coloured walls and reaching out of her mind. Those physically in the plane could see the a white, glowing cushion appear around them and lift them from back into the air, when they were scant centimetres away from the rocky ground.

Rogue had set a 'timer' of sorts on the power bind, when the two mutants believed that it was no longer necessary their powers would separate and they would return to consciousness, which they did ten minutes after they had first been joined together (apart Lance and Erik were ruthless, together Avalanche and Magneto could start an apocalypse).

Rogue however remained inside her mind the rest of the journey, keeping the ruined aircraft in the air, only returning to the land of the living when she felt as if enough time had passed for them to be approaching the institute. Through a lot of fancy piloting, (tk cushion manoeuvring from Rogue) the Blackbird and two cargo planes managed to land in the institute grounds and off load all their guests without too much trouble. Professor Xavier and a crowd of students were waiting for them, and at a silent command the crowd of teenagers surged forward to help the test subjects. The brotherhood was jostled about in the melee, some of it was obviously on purpose but the group was far too tired to worry about it. Ignoring Xavier, the other X-Men, the Acolytes, the students and the schools new guests they headed straight off to their cottage. Intending to sleep for a week.

* * *

"Are we sure about this?"

"I don't know."

Rogue's head was resting on Lance's lap and her voice was muffled as she spoke into his denim-clad knee. Todd threw his head back, not seeming to feel the thump as his skull smacked into the back of the sofa, Fred groaned and Pietro slid down the wall he was leaning against and buried his head in his knees.

"Well we have to do something, we can't just hide here for the rest of our lives."

"Why not, we have plenty of ways of getting supplies without anyone from the institute seeing us. We've got four safe, solid walls. We can become hermits."

Pietro's voice lifted at the end of his sentence, in a fake, sarcastic, chipper tone, and all he got for his troubles was a pillow thrown at his head.

"We can't stay here though, that's the problem."

"Pietro pay attention!"

"So we can't stay here, but we don't wanna leave the X-Men behind."

"Which brings us back to the original idea."

"We don't have a choice then."

"Not really."

"This could be a major disaster, of apocalyptic proportions."

"'Course, that's what makes it so much fun."

Again Pietro got a mouthful of pillow. After tossing pointless words around for a bit longer, really just to kill time, they slowly, grudgingly headed off the school for the first time in the three days since they'd been back. The first day they'd each collapsed into their beds and hadn't stirred until 3 o'clock in the afternoon the day after. Once they'd woken they'd hung around in their garden for a bit as it was a nice day, dressed in pajamas/nightie and robes they realised they had a problem.

The whole operation that they'd just completed had been done Acolyte style, right down t where Mystique had copied the files in case they'd be useful later on. Storm had seen the CDs, had asked the shapeshifter what she was doing and the two of them had gotten into a blazing row somehow Rogue and Pietro had been dragged into it, and without a second's hesitation they had agreed with Mystique, it really only was common sense to have a back up plan. There would always be someone higher up in the food chain who didn't approve of what those bastards had been doing, and if the sensitive information on those files reached the higher ups, there wouldn't be a problem anymore.

Storm and Kurt had been quiet after their agreement, and then headed out the door in heavy silence, Mystique had bestowed a proud smile on the teenagers and headed out as well, leaving Rogue and Pietro to take the rear.

In the bright sunny garden the differences Rogue and Pietro had felt in that room disappeared, but then the others had mentioned the same kind of feeling. Like they were more Acolyte than X-Man, but they had strong X-Men influences within them. For hours they'd tried to rationalise that feeling, saying that their upbringing and the training they'd received from the Acolytes meant that that only made sense. But the later it got, the less realistic those arguments became. They weren't X-Men, they could never be fully X-Men, but they weren't fully Acolytes either, they were trapped in the middle.

"I am really not looking forward to this."

"You think any of us are Silver?"

The five mutants were standing just outside the school doors, the professor had just invited them inside, saying that the X-Men and Acolytes were with him and that they all wanted to see them. They should be going inside, it wasn't as though the students outside were making them feel welcome, but what they had to do inside wasn't going to be easy.

* * *

"Lance you can't be serious. You can't all leave, you're home is here, the cottage you made habitable again, this is your home!"

Unfortunately Storm's impassioned response had no effect on the stony faced Brotherhood. Mystique, Magneto and even Sabretooth were smiling, not smirking, smiling! It looked even scarier than a scowl on the feral mutant, John was smiling a bit as well, Raven had explained the family connections to him the day before, and although none of them showed it he cared about the other Acolytes, and they cared about him. And it was good to think that maybe their family was going to grow, it wasn't like the X-Men were going to miss them anyway, they had so many lycra wearing wannabees waiting to blindly join their ranks it was unbelievable.

"Come on Storm, don't you remember how you looked at us. We're not truly X-Men, we never were, and we never cane be, there's too much Acolyte in us for that."

Here Rogue broke off and Pietro began.

"But we're not all Acolyte either, you know that. That's why we had to run before, we don't fit in either of your groups."

Then Lance began.

"Irene's got a house in New York, Rogue got in touch with her yesterday and we're going to move in there. Start up the Brotherhood Boarding House again."

There were more forceful objections, Logan stood up and growled, looking for all the world as though he intended to beat them into changing their minds. That was until Sabretooth stood in front of him, stopping him in his tracks and the two of them nearly started their own World War Three in Xavier's office. Grabbing onto Wolverine's skeleton and Sabretooth's blood Erik pulled them apart.

"Thanks Uncle Victor."

The three words chimed out simultaneously from the silver headed and stripy haired mutant, nearly giving all the X-Men a heart attack. Xavier looked as though he was about to speak so Todd, sick of all the talking made his first contribution to the conversation.

"Look yo, what it comes down to it that it ain't really none of your business. If we don't think we belong here then we don't yo. Live with it."

Fred nodded sagely, "What he said."

"We still want to keep in touch with you. We just can't live here. If we do we're just going to start arguing all the time, which, we're assuming is something none of us want."

"Besides," here Rogue looked nervously towards Pietro, twining his fingers with hers as she continued. "We miss our families, my mum, Pietro's dad, and our uncle."

Logan looked as though he was going to choke when she nodded her head towards Sabretooth. Xavier opened his mouth to speak, but what he would have said remained unknown.

"Don't interfere Charles," Erik's strong voice left no room for dissension. "Todd is quite right, it is their choice and theirs alone. They are not like us, but they will never be like you. And you do not have the right to try and change them, none of us do.

However we would like to keep in touch with you, and as the X-Men helped build your last home, perhaps you'd let us help with the new one. We'll make it even better than the last Boarding House.

He was set upon by two wild teenagers, and to the shock of everyone who didn't know him, and even to Charles's surprise the usually stern face erupted in smiles as he and his son and niece began exchanging news and apologies over the Liberty Island incident at a surprising rate, soon Raven joined in, then the rest of the brotherhood, then Victor, and finally John. Leaving the X-Men shell shocked.

The Acolytes were cold, ruthless fighters, with no emotions. The brotherhood were lively, previously misguided teenagers who had left their earlier misdeeds behind them, misdeeds forced upon them by their guardians. When the two met it should be as it had been in the first instance, the kids should be heartless and angry, they shouldn't be laughing and joking together. It just wasn't right. It just wasn't!

* * *

_The new Brotherhood Boarding House_

"Fred will you watch what you're doing, we're trying to repair this house not bulldoze it."

"Shut up Lance."

The argument swiftly degenerated into childish insults, they playful shoving, then Todd joined in, Pietro and Rogue and an all out war began on the front lawn of the boarding house. The Acolytes were watching indulgently, at one point Rogue raced past, Todd hot on her heels and pulled John into the fray. Leaving the older Acolytes to deal with the approaching X-Men.

"We don't like you Magneto."

"Really Scott, we'd never picked up on that. We're not particularly fond of you either you know. But that's not the point. You may not believe us but these kids are our family, we love them, and for some reason," here he was sneering the words, "they're fond of you."

Then Mystique spoke up. "You do anything to hurt those kids and we'll kill you, but as long as you don't, we'll play nice."

"For the Brotherhood then."

"For the Brotherhood."

And seven pairs of eyes turned to watch the fight on the lawn before them. Normal teenagers on a sunny afternoon, five amazing teenagers, who had made it possible for two groups of enemies to put aside their differences and get along. Just for the sake of five teenagers.

* * *

I did it, I finally finished, I really hoped everyone liked it and that the ending was all right, please review and tell me what you thought.

RoganLuvr: hope you liked the ending.

LoneStar: glad you like it so far, did you like the ending.

Veronica: really hope you liked the final chapter.

DreamSprite: sorry it's been a while but I hope you liked it.

Chica De Los Ojos Café: I always thought Magneto should be made human, hope you liked the final chapter.

Scar's fangurl: hope you liked it.

mm4eva2gether: hope you liked the final chapter.


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